Calamintha.] labiat^e. 379 



The var. 0. is a very pretty one, from the pui'e whiteness of the flowers, un- 

 mixed with any trace of the usual coloured spots. 



** " Corolla nearly equal at the base. Middle lobe of the lower lip of corolla emar- 

 ginate. Whorls of 2 lax peduncled cymes. Bracteas minute. Calamintha" 

 —Br. Fl. 



2. C. officinalis, Moencli. Common Calamint. " Stem herba- 

 ceous with loose ascending branches, leaves stalked broadly ovate 

 obtuse crenato-serrate green on both sides, cymes stalked few- 

 flowered shortly dichotomous or umbellate, calyx distinctly 

 2-lipped, teeth with long cilise, those of the upper lip triangular 

 straight or ascending, of the lower subulate and longer, hairs in 

 the mouth not prominent, lobes of the lower lip of the corolla 

 distant, middle one the longest." — Br. Fl. p. 322. Mosnch. 

 Method, p. 409 ? Blackwell, Herb. tab. 166 (certe nostra, sed 

 flores malfe color). Gaud. Fl. Helv. iv. p. 88. B. parviflora? con- 

 fer obs. ad calcem. descript. p. 89. Matth. Volg. ii. p. 716, fig. ? 

 Melissa Calamintha, L. Thymus Calam., Sm. E. Fl. iii. p. 109. 

 E. B. xxiv. t. 1676, flores nimis magni. 



In dry, open, sunny situations, on banks, by roadsides, borders of fields and 

 amongst rocks, chiefly on a gravelly or calcareous soil ; rare. Fl. July — Septem- 

 ber. If. 



E. Med. — Plentiful in the rocky ground above Bonchurch, now (1843) probably 

 in a great measure extirpated by building. By the roadside above Apse heath. 

 Ruins of Quarr abbey, Mr. Thos. Meehan,jun.!! Near .the Parsonage, Yaver- 

 land, but sparingly. Dr. Bell-Salter. Sparingly between Quarr abbey and Fish- 

 bourne, near Quarr house, 1837. 



W. Med. — Frequent on hedgebanks by the roadside between Thorley and Wel- 

 low. A few plants in the park at Swainston, 1843. Along the road from Caris- 

 brooke to Buccombe. About Carisbrooke village and castle, and near soiue 

 cottages at Thorley, in plenty, Mr. D. Snooke .'.'.' 



Root stout, hard, woody and lortuous, covered with a dark brown wrinkled 

 bark, knotty at the crown, composed of several thick flexuose fibres that are much 

 branched, thoufih far less copious than in the next species, moslly inclined to a 

 horizontal direction, and emitting similar but far less abundant and less slender 

 filamenis: the root, though running pretty far, has nothing of the nature of a 

 rhizonia, and cannot therefore be properly called creeping, being neither jointed 

 nor stoloniferous, the nascent stem proceeding from the crown alone above-ground 

 or just beneath the surface. Stems several, a foot or 18 inches high, mostly 

 ascending or even decumbent beneath, lax and spreading, their upper part erect; 

 tetragonous, downy all over with long, white, spreading hairs, copiously and oppo- 

 sitely ramified with variously spreading lax branches, filled like the stem itself 

 with a fine, white, cellular tissue. Leaves opposite, on flatlish hairy petioles of 

 nearly half their length, very broadly ovate, roiuidish ovate, almost deltoid or 

 rhomboidal, subcordate, bluntish or subacute, the uppermost often distinctly 

 pointed, pale green, ciliated and downy on both sides with jointed hairs curved 

 forwards, resiuoso-punctate beneath with prominent very hairy ribs, the margins 

 with few distant, very shallow, crenate serratures, and entire at the base. Ftoivers 

 in opposite, axillary, secund, stalked and imperfectly whorled clusters of from 4 to 

 6 or 8 in each, on a common peduncle more or less elongated, but sometimes so 

 short that the clusters appear sessile, pale purple or pinkish, with violet spots in 

 the throat and on the lower lip. Pedicels round, hairy, variable in length, as- long 

 as or longer than the calyx, each with one or several linear or subulate fringed 

 bracts at its base or at the forks of the common stalk. Calyx tubular, a little 

 ventricose or inflated below near the base, with 13 very prominent purplish ribs, 

 rough with curved hairs pointing forwards, the intercostal spaces sprinkled with 



