Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 701 



deflexed, 2-lipped ; upper lip broad, fiat, decurrent ; lower usually with 

 4 slender teeth, the central pair exceeding the lateral. Corolla-tube 

 short, not annulate within ; limb 2-lipped ; lower lip declinate, entire, flat 

 or nearly so ; upper rather shorter than lower, subequally 4-fid. Stamens 

 4, declinate, didynamous, exserted ; filaments free or the lower pair 

 connate below, naked or the upper toothed or hairy below ; anther-cells 

 confluent. Disk entire or 3- to 4-lobed. Style 2-fid ; lobes subulate or 

 flattened. Nutlets smooth or subrugose, mucilaginous when moistened. 

 — DiSTEiB. Species about 60, throughout the Tropics. 



Pedicels equalling or exceeding the calyx ; two lower calyx-teeth 



longer than the upper lip .. .. .. ..1. 0. sanctum. 



Pedicels much shorter than the calyx : — 



Lower calyx-teeth longer than the upper lip . . . . 2. 0. Basilicum. 



Lower calyx-teeth shorter than the upper lip . . . . 3. 0. gratissimum. 



1. OciMUM SANCTUM, Linn. Mant. 85 (1767). An erect, softly hairy, 

 much-branched herb, 1 to 2 ft. high. Stems and branches usually 

 purplish, often woody at the base. Leaves opposite, membranous, 

 pubescent on both surfaces, especially on the nerves and principally 

 beneath, elliptic-oblong, obtuse or acute ; base cuneate or tnuicate, 

 entire ; the margin elsewhere entire or serrate ; 1 to 2 in. long, -6 to 

 1-2 in. wide ; petiole -5 to 1 in. long, slender, pubescent. Flotuers in 

 slender racemes or panicles, 6 to 8 in. long, of rather close whorls; 

 bracts ovate-acuminate, -12 in. long, ciliate. Calyx -12 in. (in fruit 

 •2 in.) long ; pedicels longer than the calyx, slender, -25 in. long, 

 pubescent ; lower lip of calyx longer than upper, its 4 teeth lanceolate, 

 similar below ; the central pair with long, slender, awn-like, upcui'ved 

 tips, which project beyond the upper lip ; the lateral pair with short 

 straight tips ; upper lip wide-obovate or suborbicular, reflexed, shortly 

 apiculate. Corolla -15 in. long, purplish-pink ; upper lip pubescent on 

 the back. Fila7nents exserted, slender ; the upper ones with a small 

 bearded basal appendage. Nutlets -05 in. long, wide-ellipsoid, smooth, 

 yeUow mth black markings. Eoxb. Fl. Ind. III. 14 ; Wall. Cat. 2716 ; 

 Benth. in DC. Prodr. XII. 38 ; Miq. M. Ind. Bat. II. 939 ; Hook. f. Fl. 

 Br. Ind. IV. 609 ; Prain Beng. Plants 843. 0. monachorum, Linn. 

 Mant. 85. 0. tenuiflorum, Linn. Sp. PI. I. 597 ; Benth. in DC. Prodi'. 

 XII. 39. 0. inodorum, Bm^m. Thes. Zeylan. 175, t. 80, f. 2. 



Inmost of the provinces; in waste places. — Distrib. South-east 

 Asia from Arabia eastwards ; Australia ; Pacific Islands. 



This, the Sacred Tulsi of India, is no doubt an introduced plant in our area ; 

 where it is indigenous is uncertain. 



