592 LABIATE. Lycopus. 



Border of streams and springs, San Francisco Bay and eastward to Nevada, &c. Extends 

 northward to Puget Sound, and east to the Atlantic. 



M. piperita, Linn., the Peppermint, which is glahrous, the leaves petioled, and the flowers 

 crowded in a terminal spike, is probably in cultivation, and therefore likely to be naturalized. 



M. viPlIDIS, Linn., the Spearmint, like the last, but with veiny less smooth and sessile leaves, 

 probably in large demand for juleps, is sure to be naturalized before long. 



3. LYCOPUS, Tourn. Water Horehound. 



Like Mentha, "but the posterior pair of stamens wanting or sterile. Calyx in tlie 

 same species either 5-toothed or 4-toothed. Corolla apparently regular, being about 

 equally 4-lobed. Nutlets with thickened margins at the top. Flowers white or 

 nearly so, in close sessile whorl-like clusters in the axils of the leaves. — A genus 

 of few species, widely dispersed. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 285. 



1. L. sinuatus, Ell. Kot stoloniferous nor tuberiferous, but with rootstocks 

 more or less creeping, glabrous or minutely roughish-pubescent, a foot or two high, 

 loosely branching : leaves oblong or lanceolate, acuminate, laeiniate-pinnatifid or 

 irregularly incised, or merely sinuate, petioled : outer bracts barely equalling the 

 flowers : calyx-teeth triangular-subulate and cuspidate, rigid, nearly equalling the 

 corolla, in fruit surpassing the nutlets : rudiments of sterile stamens slender and 

 with a thickened tip. 



Wet grounds ; rare in the northern part of the State, not uncommon in Oregon, extending 

 through the Atlantic States. 



2. L. lucidus, Turcz., var. Americanus, Gray, 1. c. Somewhat stoloniferous 

 from the base of the stem, and with stouter subterranean runners producing large 

 tubers, nearly glabrous, or usually puberulent-hirsute : stem stout and strictly 

 erect, 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, acutely angled towards the summit : leaves lan- 

 ceolate (2 to 4 inches long), acute or acuminate, sharply and coarsely serrate with 

 ascending teeth, sessile or nearly so : subulate outermost bracts as long as the 

 flowers : calyx-teeth slender-subulate, equalling the corolla, not exceeding the nut- 

 lets : rudiments of sterile stamens slender and with a thickened tip. 



Low grounds near San Francisco {Kellogg, &c): also from Arizona and New Mexico to Sas- 

 katchewan. Foliage not at all lucid as in the Siberian plant. 



L. Virginicus, Linn. , in a large-leaved form (L. inacrophyllMS, Benth. ) occurs in Oregon and 

 eastward. It may be known by the abundance of filiform runners produced during the summer, 

 and the pointless calyx-teeth, which are mostly 4, while 5 largely prevails in the other species. 

 An unusual bitterness gave this plant a certain repute in medicine, but it is of no account. 



4. PYCNANTHEMUM, Michx. 



Calyx ovate-oblong or short-tubular, ours with 5 short equal teeth ; the throat 

 naked within. Corolla short, with tube hardly exceeding the calyx, and a distinctly 

 2-lipped border ; both lips nearly flat ; the upper entire or nearly so and rather 

 erect ; the lower spreading and 3-cleft into short and obtuse lobes. Stamens 4, 

 straight, distant and divergent ; the anterior pair slightly longer : anther-cells close 

 and parallel. — ; Perennial erect herbs, with densely-crowded flowers (whence the 

 name) ; consisting of 1 6 species of the Atlantic United States, and one in California. 



1. P. Californicum, Torr. About 2 feet high, corymbosely branched, sweet- 

 odorous, whitened with a fine and soft close pubescence, or in age sometimes 

 smoothish and greener : leaves from ovate to ovate-lanceolate, closely sessile by a 

 roundish or slightly cordate base, sparingly denticulate or entire (1 to 3 inches 

 long) : heads of flowers very dense at summit and in 2 or 3 upper pairs of axils, 

 compacted with slender bracts, white-villous : flowers whitish. — Pacif. R. Pep. 

 iv. 122. 



