﻿many-flowered, stalked, compound, bracteated, often accompanied 

 by small leaves. Bracteas bristle-shaped, fringed, shorter than the 

 Calyx (fig. 5.), which is cylindrical, and hairy, with 10 furrows 

 and as many ribs, the upper part dilated and funnel-shaped, with 

 5 short, blunt, veiny lobes or teeth, each of which is tipped with a 

 small spreading, bristly point. Corolla (fig. 2.) of a dull purple 

 colour, sometimes white ; upper lip cloven, vaulted, clothed on 

 the outside with white hairs, which, more or less, converge into a 

 pointed tuft ; lower lip 3-lobed, and marked with white veins, the 

 middle lobe the largest, inversely heart-shaped. The calyx attains 

 its full size long before the corolla expands, giving the latter the ap- 

 pearance of having already fallen off, though, on examination, 

 they will be found at the bottom of the former. 



The whole herb is clothed with fine soft hair or down, and has 

 a peculiar pungent and disagreeable smell. It is recommended in 

 hysterical cases. The Swedes reckon it almost a universal remedy 

 in the diseases of their cattle. Horses, Cows, Goats, and Sheep 

 refuse it. 



There is a variety with a white flower, ( Ballota alba, Linn. Sp. 

 PI. 2nd ed. p. 814.), but it is not common. The Rev. R. Walker, 

 F. L. S., & c. of Magdalen College, Author of the Flora of Oxford- 

 shire, has found it about Littlemore, near Oxford. The Rev. G. E. 

 Smith has observed it near Sandgate in Kent ; Mr. W. Pamplin, 

 jun. in Surrey; Mr. Woodward, near Hammersmith ; Dr. Stokes, 

 at Stafford ; Mr. Winch, near Hartlepool, Durham ; and Sir J. E. 

 Smith, between Norwich and Hellesdon, Norfolk. 



The Labia'tvE form one of the most natural families in the vege- 

 table kingdom. They are dicotyledonous, herbaceous plants or 

 under-shrubs, of W'hich the stem is 4-cornered, with opposite rami- 

 fications ; the leaves are opposite, divided or undivided, without 

 stipulse, replete with receptacles of aromatic oil. The flowers are 

 produced in opposite, nearly sessile, axillary cymes, resembling 

 whorls; sometimes as if capitate. The calyx is monosepalous, 

 tubular, 5- or 10-toothed, inferior, permanent, the odd tooth being 

 next the axis ; regular or irregular. The corolla is monopetalous, 

 inferior, 2-lipped; the upper lip is undivided or bifid, and over- 

 lapping the lower lip, which is larger and 3-lobed. The stamens 

 are 4 in number, 2 of which are longer than the other 2 (didyna- 

 mous), inserted upon the corolla, alternately with the lobes of the 

 lower lip ; the 2 upper stamens are sometimes imperfect, or want- 

 ing ; the anthers are 2-lobed ; the lohes sometimes so far apart at 

 the base that the 2 cells are confluent at the apex ; sometimes 1 cell 

 altogether obsolete. The ovarium (aermen) is deeply 4-lobed, 

 and seated in a fleshy hypogynous disk ; the lobes each containing 

 1 upright ovulum. The style is single, and proceeds from the base 

 of the lobes of the ovarium. Stigma bifid, and usually pointed. 

 The fruit is composed of 4 small nuts (seeds of Linn.) enclosed 

 within the permanent calyx. The seeds are upright, with little or 

 no albumen ; an upright embryo ; and flat cotyledons. 



No unwholesome or even suspicious species is found among the 

 plants of this very natural order. See Lindl. Syn. and Rich, by 

 Macgilliv. 



