242 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Waste places, dry hills, etc. June to August. 



In August, 1911, we observed several large clumps of this plant 

 on the embankment of the new electric railway just below Argen- 

 tiSre at the unusual height of about 4000 feet above the sea. 



Distribution. — Central and Southern Europe ; Western Asia. 



Calamintha L. 

 Calamintha alpina L. Alpine Calamint. (Plate XXI.) 



Stem prostrate or ascending, simple or branched, downy hke 

 the calyx. Leaves ovate or eUiptical, acute, slightly serrate, usually 

 glabrous. Flowers reddish purple in few-flowered axillary cymes. 

 Calyx open in fruit with spreading teeth, and clearly 2-lipped. Very 

 rarely the flowers are pink as in the figure, this specimen coming 

 from near Le Planet, above Argentiere. 



Sunny, stony, Alpine and sub-alpine slopes, descending to the 

 plains of Switzerland. June to August. 



Distribution. — Alps, Jura, Pyrenees, Carpathians. 



Calamintha nepetoides Jord. 



Plant about 2 feet high, covered with greyish hairs, and pleasantly 

 scented. Leaves ovate, serrated, petioled. Flowers pink, rather 

 small, in very lax panicles or whorls on branched peduncles longer 

 than the leaves. Calyx long, with almost equal teeth, shortly 

 ciliate, 2 of the teeth being narrower and rather longer than the 

 3 others. 



Dry, stony places in the lower calcareous mountains. June to 

 September. 



Distribution. — Alps, Jura, Eastern Pyrenees, Corsica, Southern 

 Europe, Asia Minor. 



HORMINUM L. 



Horminum -pyrenaicum L. 



About 6 or 10 inches high. Root-leaves stalked, ovate-lanceolate, 

 crenate, wrinkled, glabrous. Flowers violet, usually in false whorls 

 (axillary cymes) of 6. Calyx 2-lipped, upper lip 3-toothed ; lateral 

 teeth wedge-shaped. Corolla 2-lipped, upper lip erect, 2-cleft, 

 tube provided with a ring of hairs. Stamens 4, distant, connivent 

 towards the apex beneath the upper lip of corolla. Anthers coherent 

 in pairs ; anther-lobes coalescent at the apex, dehiscing by a 

 common longitudinal fissure. It is the only species known. 



Grassy pastures in the Alps from about 4000-6500 feet ; local, 

 and absent from many large districts, though abundant in Tyrol. 

 June to August. 



Distribution. — Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, but extremely 

 rare in the Western Alps, and in Western Switzerland. Pyrenees. 



