LABIATE. 



661 



Corolla with the upper lip erect, concave, and entire ; the lower lip 

 longer, spreading, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes often reflexed. Stamens 4, 

 in pairs under the upper lip. JNuts smooth, rounded at the top. 



A numerous genus, spread over nearly the whole world, but within 

 the tropics limited to mountain districts. 



Erect perennials, 1 to 3 feet high. 



Plant thickly covered with a white silky wool. Flowers nu- 

 merous, in crowded whorls 2. Downy S. 



Plant green, more or less hairy. 



Flowers many in each whorl, forming a close, oblong ter- 

 minal spike. Leaves mostly radical ..... 1. Betony S. 

 Flowers 6 to 10 in each whorl, forming a long, loose ter- 

 minal spike. Stem leafy. 

 Lower leaves long-stalked, ovate, deeply cordate . . 3. Sedge S. 

 Leaves short-stalked or sessile, oblong or lanceolate, 



scarcely cordate 4. Marsh 8. 



Low, weak, or spreading annual, with small flowers . . . . 5. Field S. 



The S. annua (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2669), a low, erect, south Euro- 

 pean annual, with yellow flowers the size of those of the marsh S., has 

 been inserted in some British Eloras, probably from having appeared 

 among the weeds in some cornfield. The S. coccinea, from Mexico, with 

 red flowers, and a few other exotic species, are occasionally cultivated 

 in flower-gardens. 



1. Betony Stachys. Stachys Betonica, Benth. (Fig. 793.) 

 (JBetonica officinalis, Eng. Bot. t. 1142. Betony.) 



A perennial, 1 to 2 feet high, more or 

 less downy or hairy, but not woolly. 

 Leaves mostly radical, oblong, coarsely 

 crenate and cordate at the base ; the 

 upper ones few and distant, on short 

 stalks or quite sessile, narrower and not 

 cordate. Elowers in several dense whorls, 

 collected in a close terminal, oblong 

 head or spike, with an ovate or lanceolate 

 bract under each calyx. Calyx-teeth 

 erect, very pointed, almost prickly. 

 Tube of the corolla considerably longer 

 than the calyx; the upper lip ovate, 

 erect, and slightly concave, about the 

 length of the lower one. Anther-cells 

 more distinct and less divergent than in 

 the rest of the genus, or almost parallel. 



In woods and thickets, all over Europe Fig. 793. 



