64 DIDYNAMIA— GYMNOSPERMIA. Ajuga. 



the upper side, the 2 intermediate ones being shortest, 

 and all of them parallel, rarely longer than the corolla, 

 their upper half usually incurved. Anthers oblong, at- 

 tached by the back, converging in pairs, generally shel- 

 tered by the upper lip, but sometimes quite exposed. 



Germeti superior, 4-lobed; si^le solitary, central, thread- 

 shaped, situated between the stamens, and curved in the 

 same direction, being of an intermediate length between 

 the longer and shorter ones ; stigma usually cloven and 

 divaricated, sometimes undivided, or slightly notched. 



Seeds 4, lodged in the bottom of the calyx, which is their 

 only covering, and serves instead of a seed-vessel. Each 

 seed has a double integument, a testa and a mcmbrana, 

 both of them very thin, generally smooth. See observa- 

 tions on the Asperifolia;, vol. i. 248. 



All the plants of the Didynamia Gymnospermia are herba- 

 ceous, or slightly shrubby, never arborescent. Their 

 stems are quadrangular, branched, and leafy. Leaves op- 

 posite, entire or serrated, in a few instances much di- 

 vided. Flowers stalked, axillary, either solitary, or in 

 dense tufts constituting 'whorls ; their colour reddish, pur- 

 plish, blue, white, or yellow. Qualities aromatic, or bit- 

 ter, in every instance harmless. The powers are rarely 

 so fragrant as the herbage, though sometimes exhaling 

 a slight odour, peculiar to themselves. Round pellucid 

 spots, in the leaves or calyx more especially, are the seat 

 of an aromatic essential oil. The pubescence of the herb- 

 age, in many species, exudes a similar, or more viscid, 

 or a bitter secretion. In growing parts, attacked by in- 

 sects for the lodgment of their eggs, these secretions are 

 changed to acid or astringent ones. 



283. AJUGA. Bugle. 



Linn. Gen. 287. Fl.Br.604. Lam.^501. 

 Bugula. Tourn. t. i)8. Juss. I ] 2. 

 Chamaepitys. Tourn. t. 98. ' 



Cal. divided about half way down into 5, nearly equal seg- 

 ments, permanent. Cor. ringent; t7ihe sometimes inflated 

 at the base, not quite straight ; uppei- lip vei'y short, erect, 

 abrupt, notched ; loxvei- large, spreading, 3-lobed ; the 

 central lobe either undivided or inversely heart-shaped ; 

 lateral ones small. i^//fl??j. longer than the upper lip, short- 

 er than the lower, incurved. Gei-men superior, of 4 round 

 lobes. Style incurved. Stigma in 2 acute, spreading seg- 



