350 THE LABIATE FAMILY. [Calamintha. 



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 the northern 

 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 arrangement 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 3. C. Clinopodium. 



Cymes loose, axillary, and few-flowered or loosely paniculate. 



Bracts small, or none besides the floral leaves . . . 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. 0, 

 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. Fl. 

 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 terminals 1-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. Fl. summer. 

 The following marked varieties have been usually considered as species, 

 but they run so much into one another that many botanists unite 

 them : — 



