LABIATE. 



653 



An American Calamint with red flowers is occasionally cultivated in 

 our gardens. The common Balm (Melissa officinalis), which often es- 

 tablishes itself for a time as an outcast from gardens, in the southern 

 districts of England, much resembles a Calamint ; 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. Field Calamint. Calamintha Acinos, Clairv. (Fig. 783.) 

 (Thymus, Eng. Bot. t. 411. 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. Elowers 

 pale-purple or white, in axillary whorls 

 of about 6, on short, erect pedicels, 

 without bracts. Calyx strongly ribbed ; 

 the tube much enlarged on the under 

 side at the base, contracted again at the 

 mouth ; the teeth short and fine. Co- 

 rolla in the common variety but little 

 longer than the calyx, although occa- 

 sionally near twice as long. 



In waste places, or more frequently as 

 a weed of cultivation, in Europe and 

 western Asia, extending northward into 

 Scandinavia. Dispersed over England, 

 Ireland, and a portion of Scotland. Fl. . 

 summer. 



Fig. 783. 



2. Common Calamint. Calamintha officinalis, Moench. 



(Fig. 784«.) 



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 pe- 

 duncles as long 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 south- 

 ern Europe and Russian Asia, but scarcely extending into northern 



