Calamintha. ] LVI, LABIATH, 391 
2, C. officinalis, Mcnch. (fig. 789). Common Calamint.—A more or 
less hairy perennial; the rootstock often creeping ; the stem ascending or 
erect, with straggling branches, | 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, one-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. F7. summer. The 
following marked varieties have been usually considered as species, but 
they run so much into one another that botanists are now disposed to unite 
them :— 
a. C. Nepeta, Clairv. Rootstock scarcely creeping. Leaves about half 
an inch long, nearly entire. Flowers about 6 lines long, the cymes con- 
tracted into loose whorls of about 10, the corolla half as long again as the 
calyx. On dry, open, sunny banks. Abundant on the Continent, and not 
uncommon in England. 
b. C. officinalis. Leaves larger than in the last, and more toothed. 
Flowers nearly twice as long as the calyx. Intermediate between the two 
other varieties, and not quite so common as either. 
c. C. sylvatica, Bromf. Rootstock more creeping. Stem taller, Leaves 
often 2 to 3 inches long. Cymes loose. Flowers showy, often an inch 
long, the corolla fully twice as long as the calyx. In woods, and under 
hedges, common on the Continent, especially in the south, extending in 
Britain to the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, and Devonshire. 
3. ©. Clinopodium, Benth. (fig. 790). Hedge Calamint, Wild 
Basil.—Rootstock shortly creeping. Stems annual, erect or ascending, 
branched, and softly hairy, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves stalked, ovate, slightly 
toothed, almost 2 inches long, soft and hairy. Flowers purple, in dense 
_ cymes, forming compact whorls or heads in the axils of the upper leaves, or 
at the ends of the branches, and surrounded by subulate, hairy bracts. 
Calyx about 3 lines long, with subulate, hairy teeth, the 3 upper ones 
shortly united by their broad base. Tube of the corolla rather longer than 
the calyx-teeth. 
Under hedges, and on the borders of woods, throughout Europe and 
Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Rather frequent in England and 
southern Scotland, rare in Ireland. FV. summer. 
VII. NEPETA. NEPETA. 
Creeping or erect herbs, with flowers usually blue, in axillary whorls or 
terminal spikes. Calyx tubular, 15-ribbed, its mouth oblique and 5-toothed, 
the upper teeth usually the longest. Corolla with a rather long tube, 
the throat enlarged ; the upper lip erect, slightly concave, notched or 2- 
lobed ; the lower lip spreading and 3-lobed. Stamens 4, in pairs under the 
upper lip, the upper or inner pair the longest. 
An extensive Kuropean and Asiatic genus, the great centre of which is 
in western Asia, With a few other exotic genera, it forms a tribe among 
