LABIATE. 417 



Cymes loose, axillary, and few-flowered or loosely paniculate. Bracts 



small, or none besides the floral leaves 2. Common C. 



An American Calamint with red flowers is occasionally cultivated in cur 

 gardens. The common Balm {Melissa officinalis), which often establishes 

 itself for a time as an outcast from gardens, in the southern districts of 

 England, much resembles a Calamint ; it is however a coarser plant, and 

 is distinguished as a genus chiefly by a slight curve upwards in the tube of 

 the corolla. 



1. Field Calamint. Calamintha Acinos, Clairv. 

 {Thymus, Eng. Bot. t. 411. Basil Thyme) 



A more or less branched annual, 6 or 8 inches high, and slightly downy. 

 Leaves stalked, rather small, narrow-ovate, pointed, shghtly toothed. Flowers 

 pale-purple or white, in axillary whorls of about 6, on short, erect pedicels, 

 without bracts. Calyx strongly ribbed ; the tube much enlarged on the under 

 side at the base, contracted again at the mouth ; the teeth short and fine. 

 Corolla in the common variety but httle longer than the calyx, although oc- 

 casionally near twice as long. 



In waste places, or more frequently as a weed of cultivation, in Europe 

 and western Asia, extending northward into Scandinavia. Dispersed over 

 England, Ireland, and a portion of Scotland. Fl. summer. 



2. Comznon Calamint. Calataintba officinalis, Moench. 



A more or less hairy perennial ; the rootstock often creeping ; the stem 

 ascending or erect, with straggling branches, 1 to 2 feet high or even more. 

 Leaves stalked, ovate, and toothed. Flowers vei-y variable in size, usually 

 turned to one side, in loose cymes, which are sometimes all axillaiy, with 

 6 to 10 flowers in each, sometimes looser, on peduncles as long or longer 

 than the leaves, and forming terminal, one-sided, leafy panicles. Calyx 

 tubular, ribbed, not swollen at the base ; the teeth finely pointed, those of 

 the lower lip finer and longer than the upper ones. 



In woods, hedges, roadsides, and waste places, m central and southern 

 Europe and Russian Asia, but scarcely extending into northern Germany. 

 Frequent in England and Ireland, but not in Scotland. Fl. summer. The 

 following marked varieties have been usually considered as species, but they 

 run so much into one another that botanists are now disposed to unite 

 them : — 



a. Small-flowered C. {Thymus Nepeta, Eng. Bot. t. 1414.) Root- 

 stock scarcely creeping. Leaves about half an inch long, nearly entire. 

 Flowers about 6 hues long, the cymes contracted into loose whorls of about 

 10, the corolla half as long again as the calyx. On di-y, open, sunny 

 banks. Abundant on the Continent, and not uncommon m England. 



b. Common O. {Thymus Calamintha, Eng. Bot. t. 1676.) Leaves larger 

 than in the last, and more toothed. Flowers nearly twice as long as the 

 calyx. IntermecUate between the two other varieties, and not quite so 

 common as either. 



c. Wood C. {C. sylvatica, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2897.) Rootstock more 

 creeping. Stem taller. Leaves often 2 to 3 inches long. Cymes loose. 

 Flowers showy, often an inch long, the corolla fuU twice as long as the 

 calvx. In woods, and imder hedges, common on the Continent, especially 

 in the south, but not extending in Britain beyond the Isle of Wight. 



