51 







with the interior bracts often aborting, the exterior ones form- 

 ing an involucrum or likewise aborting : 4th, rednced to a sin- 

 gle flower, and then the flowers are opposite and solitary. 



GENUS I. OCIMUM. 



Oidynamia. Ciymnospcriula. Sex-- Sgat' 



Deriv. From Ozo, to smell ; alluding to the fragrance of the 

 plants. 



Gen. Chab. Calyx ovate or campanulate, 5-toothed, deflexed 

 after flowering, throat rarely hairy within : the uppermost tooth 

 with,decarrent margins : tube of the corolla very seldom exserted,- 

 without a ring inside, throat usually campanulate, limb 2-lipped, 

 upper 4-clefb, lower scarcely longer, declinate, quite entire, flat or 

 Blightly concave : stamens four : filaments free, upper ones at the 

 base often appendiculate with a tooth or fascicle of hairs : style 

 shortly 2-cleft at the apex : disk hypogynous, swelling into 1-4 

 glands which sometimes equal the lobes of the ovary : nuts ovoid 

 or snbglobose, smooth, or sometimes very slightly wrinkled, moist 

 when ripe, more often densely mucilaginous. — Herbs, shrubs or 

 nndershmbs : floral leaves bract-shaped, often petioled, quite 

 entire : with commonly deciduous vertioillasters, G-flowered^ 

 arranged in terminal racemes, pedicels erect, recurved at the top. 



(1) O. CANUM. (Sims.) 



Ident. Dec. prod. XII. p. 32. 

 ' Syn. O. americanum, Linn. — O. album, Roxb. — O. staminenm, 

 Sims. 



Engrav. Sims. hot. Mag. t. 2452. 



Spec. Char. Stem herbaceous, erect, pubescent : leaves petioled, 

 ovate, removed at both ends, denticulate or entire, rather hoarjr 

 beneath : petioles ciliated : verticils of the fruit-bearing raceme, 

 numerous, approximated : calyx small, a little ciliated : flowers 

 white. 



Common. ' Everywhere, flowering at all seasons. 



(2) O. Basilicum. (Zinra.) 



Ident. Linn. Sp. p. 883. — Dec. prod. XII. p. 32. 



Spec. Char. Stem erect or ascending : leaves petioled, ovate 

 or oblong, removed at the base,. slightly toothed, glabrous : verticils 

 of the fruit-bearing raceme separated by a space longer than the 



