350 THE LABIATE FAMILY. 
upper teeth more or less connected at the base into an upper lip; the — 
mouth more or less closed with hairs. Corolla-tube usually longer 
than the calyx; the upper lip erect and slightly concave ; the lower 
one spreading, with 3 broad lobes. Stamens 4, in pairs under the 
upper lip, the outer ones the longest, but not spreading beyond the 
corolla. 
A considerable genus, spread over the temperate regions of thenorthern 
hemisphere, both in the New and the Old World. It is distinguished 
from Thymus and Origanum chiefly by the longer corolla and the stamens 
not diverging, from all the following genera by the arTeneeneny of the 
ribs or nerves of the calyx. 
Annual. Calyx-tube enlarged at the base on the lower side. 
Flowers in axillary whorls of six. : : . 1. C. Acinos. 
Perennials. Calyx-tube not enlarged at the base. 
Cymes axillary, many-flowered, forming dense whorls, with 
linear bracts as long as the calyxes é . 3. C. Clinopodiwm. 
Cymes loose, axillary, and few-flowered or loosely paniculate. 
Bracts small, or none besides the floral leaves . Z . 2 C, officinalis. 
An American Calamintha with red flowers is occasionally cultivated 
in our gardens. The common Balm (Melissa officinalis), which often esta- 
blishes itself for a time as an outcast from gardens, in the southern 
districts of England, much resembles a Calamintha ; it is, however, a 
coarser plant, and is distinguished as a genus chiefly by a slight curve 
upwards in the tube of the corolla. 
1. C. Acinos, Clairv. (fig. 790). Field C., Basil-Thyme.—A more or 
less branched annual, 6 or 8 inches high, and slightly downy. Leaves 
stalked, rather small, narrow-ovate, pointed, slightly toothed. Flowers 
pale-purple, or white, in axillary whorls of about 6, on short, erect 
pedicels, without bracts. Calyx strongly ribbed ; the tube much: en- 
larged on the under side at the base, contracted again at the mouth ; 
the teeth short and fine. Corolla in the common variety but little 
longer than the calyx, although occasionally near twice as long. C. 
arvensis, Lam. 
In waste places, or more frequently as a weed of cultivation, in Europe 
and western Asia, extending northward into Scandinavia. Dispersed 
over England, and a portion of Scotland, very rare in Ireland. FI. 
summer. 
2. C. officinalis, Mcench. (fig. 791). Common C.—A more or less 
hairy perennial; the rootstock often creeping; the stem ascending or 
erect, with straggling branches, 1 to 2 feet high or even more. Leaves © 
stalked, ovate, and toothed. Flowers very variable in size, usually 
turned to one side, in loose cymes, which are sometimes all axillary, 
with 6 to 10 flowers in each, sometimes looser, on peduncles as long 
as or longer than the leaves, and forming terminal, l-sided leafy 
panicles. Calyx tubular, ribbed, not swollen at the base; the teeth 
finely pointed, those of the lower lip finer and longer than the upper 
ones. 
In woods, hedges, roadsides, and waste places, in central and southern ~ 
Europe and Russian Asia, but scarcely extending into northern Germany. — 
Frequent in England and Ireland, but not in Scotland. FU. summer. 
The following marked varieties have been usually considered as ApOoess 
but they run so much into one another that many botanists unite 
them :— mete o 
