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ORIGANUM VULGARE. 
Common Marjoram,'* 
Class D1DYNA.MIA. — Order Gymnospermia. 
Nat. Ord. Verticillat^, Linn. Labiatje, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Strobile four-cornered, spiked, collecting the 
calyxes. Corolla monopetalous, gaping. 
Spec. Char. Spikes somewhat round. Panicles conglome- 
rate. Bractea ovate, longer than the calyx. 
The Common Marjoram is a perennial plant, growing wild in 
many parts of Britain, especially on dry chalky hills, or gravelly 
soils, and flowering in July and August. The root is creeping, and 
beset with numerous slender fibres ; the stem is erect, square, pur- 
plish, downy, producing opposite branches, and rising about a foot 
and a half in height; the leaves are ovate, pointed, somewhat in- 
dented at the edges, smooth above, beneath downy, of a deep yellow 
green, and stand upon footstalks in pairs, at the joints ; the flowers 
are numerous, terminal, of a pale purplish colour, and stand in 
panicles or clusters ; the bracteas or floral leaves are oval, sessile, 
and of a brownish red colour; the partial calyx is tubular, and di- 
vided at the brim into five segments, fringed at the edges ; the 
corolla consists of a funnel-shaped tube, longer than the calyx, 
divided at the limb into two lips, the uppermost of which is erect, 
bifid, obtuse ; the lower lip is trifid, blunt, and spreading; filaments 
of a purple colour, and furnished with a double anther ; the ger- 
men is divided into four parts, from the centre of which rises a 
filiform style, crowned with a bifid stigma reflected ; seeds four, egg- 
shaped, and lodged in the bottom of the calyx. 
From the above description it will be seen that the Origanum 
agrees with Marrubium in most of its botanical characters, belonging 
as they do to the same class and order ; and it may be well here to 
remark, that the plants belonging to this class have throughout many 
striking points of resemblance, and seem to form a true natural class ; 
* Fig. a. represents a sprig of the natnral size. b. A flower magnified to shew the 
stamina, &c, c. The calyx and bractea, magnified, d. The pistillam magnified. 
