BORAGINADS. 477 
remarkable for the strange irregularity of its corolla, and the 
unequal length of its stamens. 
The Lasrarex, from labium, lipped, describes the peculiar form 
of the upper lip of the corolla in this important order. They are 
herbaceous, or half shrubby plants, usually yielding more or less 
quantities of aromatic essential oil. .Their stems are four-sided, 
with opposite branches and leaves; flowers in axillary opposite 
clusters, sessile, or on short stalks; and the upper lip of the 
corolla, which is characteristic of the order, consists of two united 
petals opposite to the three united sepals of the bilabiate calyx, 
while the two united sepals are opposed to the three united pet 
of the corolla. 
The extent of the order has led to various attempts to class them 
in tribes; of these attempts we select the following :— 
TRIBEI. MENTHOIDEX. Mint tribe; lobes of the corolla nearly equal 
TRIBE Ii. peo The Sages ; corolla two-lipped; stamens two; sur three lobes separated by 
a filif. 
TRIBE III. wesicoraiel Thymes; corolla two-lipped; stamens four, nearly equal, or lower pair 
aight longer; in true Thymes stamens straight, diverging; in Melissa, stamens more or less bent, 
erging. 
TRIBEIV. LaMIoIpE®. Lamium tribe; stamens four, contiguous and parallel under the upper lip 
of the corolla, In Nepe etee the stamens on the lip shorter, gi the pony on the helmet. In the 
Stachys longer. In when the carpels are ri 
TRIBE V, AJUGOIDER. The Ainge: upper lip of the ‘aati short or aa 
The Labiatese are spread over the whole world, but are most 
abundant in temperate regions, diminishing in number to- 
wards the poles and the tropics; between the tropics they are 
Tare, and from polar regions of both hemispheres they are wholly 
absent. 
_ The White Dead Nettle (Lamium album) (Fig. 433) is a 
herbaceous plant, frequently met with in grassy places and by 
road-sides. It will serve as a type of the numerous family of the 
Labiatez. 
The stems and branches of the Dead Nettles are four-sided ; the 
leaves simple, ovate, and opposite, long and acuminate, unequally 
dentate and slightly rugose. The inflorescence is composite, in 
small contracted cymes, with sessile flowers, thus forming what 
Botanists call glomerules, which spring from the axilla of the 
upper leaves. The flowers are hermaphrodite and irregular. 
the calyx is monosepalous. The corolla rather large, white, 
tinged with yellow inside, monopetalous, and bilabiate. The 
