384 



LABIATVE 



and it is commonly cultivated in cottage gardens to be made into 

 a tea which is a rustic remedy for colds. — Fl. July — September 

 Perennial. 



2. Lycopus (Gipsy-wort). — Marsh plants with toothed leaves 

 and small sessile flowers in crowded axillary whorls ; calyx bell- 

 shaped, with 5 equal teeth ; corolla short, nearly polysymmetric, 



4-cleft ; stamens 4, distant, 

 the 2 upper ones not pro- 

 ducing pollen ; nutlets free, 

 smooth. (Name from the 

 Greek lukos, a wolf, pons, 

 a foot, from a fancied re- 

 semblance in the leaves.) 



1. L. europceus (Com- 

 mon Gipsy-wort). — The 

 only British species, with 

 creeping rhizome and run- 

 ners ; slightly branched, 

 erect, acutely 4-angled 

 stem 1 — 3 feet high ; sub- 

 sessile, deeply cut or pin- 

 natifid, nearly smooth 

 leaves; and minute white 

 flowers, dotted with red, in 

 crowded whorls in the axils 

 of the upper leaves. — Fl. 

 June — September. Peren- 

 nial. 



3. Origanum (Mar- 

 joram). — Aromatic plants, 

 with their flowers crowded 

 in corymbose cymes with 

 imbricate bracts; calyx 

 with 5 equal teeth, 10 — 13 

 ribbed, the throat hairy ; 

 corolla obscurely 2-lipped ; stamens 4, distant ; nutlets free, smooth. 

 (Name from the Greek oros, mountain, gdnos, joy, the plant 

 growing on high ground.) 



1. 0. vulgdre (Common Marjoram). — The only British species, 

 growing about a foot high, and distinguished by its shortly-stalked, 

 broadly ovate, downy leaves and heads of rosy flowers crowded into 

 a corymbose cyme, with deeply red-tinged, imbricate bracts form- 

 ing 4-sided spikelets. — Dry bushy places, especially on chalk or 



ORiGANUM vulgAr£ {Common Marjt 



