370 LABIATE. [Mentha. 



a broadly ovate or suboordate, pale and shining bractea set closely but obliquely 

 under it. Calyx 2-lipped, downy, a little inflated or ventiicose, faintly nerved, 

 each lip cleft into 2 broad acute segments closing on the corolla, which projects 

 but little beyond Iheir tips. Corolla smooth, tubular, 2-lipped ; vpper lip con- 

 cave, rounded, either entire or slightly notched ; lower lip in 3 shallow crisped or 

 plaited lobes, stained and streaked with purple or dark rose- red. Filaments a lit- 

 tle downy, dilated upwards ; anthers 2-celled, cohering, fringed along their edges 

 with white hairs; pollen white, granular. Style glabrous, curved, purplish, and 

 in my specimens, as seems most usually the case, exserted; stigma capitate, 

 2-Iobed, glandulose, with a transverse farrow. Ovarium nearly glabrous, half 

 surrounded at the base by a yellowish, tumid, somewhat lobed gland. Capsule 

 ovate, tipped with the permanent style, at first white and polished, afterwards 

 blackish brown, thin and membranous, of one cell bursting by a longitudinal 

 suture. Seeds numerous, roundish, brownish, deeply wrinkled, on 2 large fleshy 

 placentae, each filling up nearly the half of the cell, and meeting by their flat 

 inner faces. 



This plant, like Melampyrum, turns quite black in drying or on exposure to 

 the air soon after being gathered. Tt is a very variable plant in several respects. 

 My plants agree with the figure in E. Bot. in their broad ovate bracteas, and with 

 that of the Rev. G. E. Smith (Pis. of S. Kent) in the exserted style and colour of 

 the flowers, but differ from both in having these last much more crowded, though 

 not so much so as in the coarse plant of Fl. Danica, in which they are drawn 

 apparently with the upper lip of the corolla quite entire and with included styles. 



For a most interesting memoir on the structure and economy of this singular 

 vegetable, by Mr. Bowman, see Linn. Trans, vol. xvi. 



Order LVII. LABIATE, Jim. 



" And thou hast fragrant herbs and seed. 

 Which only garden's culture need: 

 Thy horehound tufts I love them well, 

 ******* 



Thy thyme, strong-scented 'neath one's feet. 

 Thy maijoram beds, so doubly sweet, 

 And penny-royals creeping twine : 

 These, each succeeding each, are thine." 



Clare. 



" Calyx tubular. Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, mostly 

 irregular. Stamens 4, mostly didynamous, 2 sometimes sterile or 

 wanting. Ovary 1, deeply 4 -lobed; style arising from between 

 the lobes, near their base. Stigma 2-lobed. Achenes 4, enclosed 

 in the calyx. Seed solitary, erect. Embryo erect. Albumen 0. 

 Leaves opposite. Stems square." — Br. Fl. 



Tribe I. Menthoioe^, Benth. 



" Corolla hell-shaped, nearly regular. Stamens distant, straight." 

 —Bab. Man. 



