L A M I A C E JE. 



509 



very pungent. It owes its properties to an essential oil, and imparts its vir- 

 tues to boiling water. The oil is of a light-yellow colour, with a specific 

 gravity of 0*948. 



Medical Properties. — Pennyroyal is a stimulant aromatic, and is used to 

 obviate nausea and relieve flatulence, as well as to disguise the taste of nau- 

 seous medicines. No one of the aromatic herbs is more employed in domes- 

 tic practice than this, especially as an emmenagogue, and with more general 

 success. It is given in warm infusion, and, aided by a hot foot-bath, acts 

 very beneficially in slight cases of suppressed or scanty menstruation, though 

 no dependence is to be placed upon it in those of long standing. It is also 

 used with some benefit as a stimulating diaphoretic, in incipient catarrhs and 

 rheumatisms. It is said that the plant or its oil is an effectual remedy against 

 the attacks of ticks, fleas, and musquitoes ; but, from many trials made with 

 it, it does not appear to possess any more effect than the other aromatics. 



Cunila. — Linn. 



Calyx tubular, striated, 5-toothed, subequal. Corolla tubular, ringent, bilabiate 

 lip erect, flat, emarginate; lower lip 3-parted. Stamens 4; 2 fertile, exserted, 2 

 short. Anthers didymous, roundish. Ovary 4-lobed. Style filiform, with a bifid 

 Seeds 4, egg-shaped, small. 



A North American Fig. 221. 



genus, containing but 

 few species, all aroma- 

 tic and stimulant. Un- 

 der this name Pliny 

 speaks of several plants, 

 differing widely from 

 each other in botanical 

 character and physical 

 properties ; thus his C. 

 sativa is a Satureja, 

 and his C. mascula an 

 Inula. 



C. mariana, Linn. — 

 Smooth ; stems slender and 

 branched. Leaves opposite, 

 sessile, ovate, serrate, 

 punctate. Flowers in ter- 

 minal corymbs. 



Linn., Sp. PL 30; 

 Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. 

 i. 43; Barton, Veg. 

 Mat. Med. ii. 171 ; Ra- 

 finesque, Med. Fl. i. 

 136 ; Bentham, Labiat. 



Co?nmon Names. — 

 Dittany ; Mountain Dit- 

 tany ; Stone-mint, &c. 



Description. — Root pe- 

 rennial, fibrous. Stem 

 smooth, slender, about a 

 foot high. Branches oppo- 

 site or nearly so. Leaves 



opposite, sessile, smooth, C. mariana. 



punctate, cordate at base, 



; upper 

 sterile, 

 stigma. 



