416 THE LABIATE FAMILY. 



On banks, and dry, liilly pastures, througliout Europe and nortliem and 

 central Asia. Very abundant in Britain. Fl. the tvliole summer. 



V. MARJORAM. ORIGANUM. 



Herbs or undershrubs, with the flowers and principal characters of 

 Thyme, but of taller growth, and especially differing in inflorescence. The 

 flowers are in compact heads, with a bract under each flower at least as long 

 as the calyx, the whole forming terminal corymbs or panicles. The calyx 

 is also variable, in our species more regular than in Thyme, in some exotic 

 ones quite as decidedly 2-lipped as in that genus, and the lips sometimes 

 entire. 



Besides our common species, the greater number of Marjorams are east 

 Mediterranean, including the sweet Marjoram of our gardens. 



1. V/ild Marjoram. Origanuiu vulgare, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1143.) 



Eootstock perennial, shortly creeping ; the annual stems erect, 1 to 2 feet 

 high, more or less hairy. Leaves stalked, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, an inch 

 or more long, and slightly toothed. Flowers pm-ple or rarely white, in glo- 

 bular compact heads, forming a terminal trichotomous panicle. Bracts 

 ovate, about the length of the calyx. Calyx vei-y hairy inside the mouth, 

 with short, nearly equal teeth. Corolla twice as long as the calyx, with 4 

 broad, nearly equal lobes, of wliich the upper one is broader and nearly 

 erect. The two longest stamens, and sometimes all four, project beyond 

 tlie coroUa. 



On the edges of woods, roadsides, and hilly pastures, especially in lime- 

 stone districts, throughout Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme 

 north. In Britain, sj)read over England, Ireland, and western Scotland. 

 Fl. summer. 



VI. CALAMINT. CALASnNTHA. 



Branching, erector ascending herbs, with ovate, toothed leaves, and pui-pUsh 

 flowers in axillary cymes, sometimes formmg dense whorls, sometimes loose 

 and paniculate. Calyx tubular, with 13 longitudinal parallel ribs (two be- 

 tween the midribs of the lower teeth, and one only between the midribs of 

 the upper teeth), and 5 jjointed teeth ; the 3 upper teeth more or less con- 

 nected at the base into an upper lip ; the mouth more or less closed with 

 hsdrs. CoroUa-tube usually longer than the calyx ; the upper lip erect and 

 slightly concave ; the lower one spreading, with 3 broad lobes. Stamens 4, 

 in pairs under the upper hp, the outer ones the longest but not spreading 

 beyond the corolla. 



A considerable genus, spread over the temperate regions of the noi'thern 

 hemisphere, both in the new and the old world. It is distinguished from 

 Thyme and Marjoram chiefly by the longer coroUa and the stamens not di- 

 verging, from all the following by the arrangement of the ribs or nerves of 

 the calyx. 



Annual. Calyx-tube enlarged at the base on the lower side. Flowers 



in axillarv whorls of six 1. Field C. 



Perennials. Calyx-tube not enlarged at the base. 



Cymes axillary, many-flowered, forming dense whorls, with linear 



bracts as long as the calyxes 3. Hedge C 



