258 
LABIATE. 
\Ocymum. 
* Several of the species are commonly cultivated, and have become 
more or less established. Of these the most common is O. gratissimum, 
Linn., (O. frutescens, Mill .), which is almost shrubby, much branched, 
several feet high, with glabrous stems and large petioled ovate-rhomboid 
nearly glabrous leaves, calyx-tube i in. long, upper tooth with an 
abruptly recurved round point y 1 ^- in. broad, the others much 
shorter minute subulate and the lower lip closed against the upper, 
and corolla not longer than the calyx. From this O. suave , Willd. (O. 
paniculatum, Boyer , Sort. Maur. 253, nonPers.), differs mainly by its 
hairy branches and leaves pilose beneath. 0. canum , Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 
2452, is dwarfer and less shrubby in habit, with pilose slender stems, 
leaves much smaller, pilose beneath, upper lip of calyx round in. broad, 
not recurved at the point and not longer than the others, and corolla 
1J-2 times the length of the calyx. The latter was found by Dr. 
Balfour in Rodriguez near Mathurin. Basilic. 
# Moschosma polystachyum, Benth. (Ocymum, Linn.), the Musk Basil, 
is also commonly cultivated and usually subspontaneous. It is an 
erect annual, 2-3 feet high, with a glabrous stem, glabrous ovate 
acute leaves, very small flowers in copiously panicled racemes, 
minute bracts, calyx in. long, with teeth nearly equal in length, the 
upper round obtuse with edges not decurrent down the tube, the side 
ones deltoid, the lowest linear-cuspidate. It is a native of the tropics 
of the Old World. Basilic masque. 
1. PLECTRANTHUS, L’Herit. 
Calyx declinate, with a campanulate tube, the five teeth equal in 
length, the uppermost broad, obtuse, the others narrow, acute. Corolla 
bilabiate, 3^4 times the length of the calyx, the lower lip oblong-spathu- 
late, concave, declinate. Stamens 4, nearly as long as the lower lip, 
didynamous ; anthers ovate, with divaricate lobes. Style shortly bifid. 
Nucules globose. — Herbs or shrubs, with blue flowers in lax long 
racemes of distant whorls. Distrib. Tropical and subtropical regions 
of the Old World. Species 70. 
Leaves and stems densely pilose 1. P. madagascariensis. 
Leaves and stems nearly or quite glabrous . . . 2. P. rotundifolius. 
1. P. madagascariensis, Benth. in DC. Prod. xii. 68. A perennial 
herb, with a procumbent rootstock, from which issue many spreading or 
erect densely pilose stems 1-2 feet long. Leaves petioled, roundish, 
crenate, thick, densely pilose, f-1 in. long. Racemes 3-6 in. long, of 
many distant dense whorls of 10-12 flowers each, bracteated by lanceo- 
late minute leaves; pedicels very short. Calyx finally in. long, sprinkled 
with minute glands ; teeth as long as the tube, upper roundish, the 
others lanceolate. Corolla pale blue, pilose, J in. long, the upper lip 
shortly 4-lobed. Ocimum madagascariense, Pers. Plectranthus villosus, 
Sieb. FI. Maur. Fxsic. ii. 152. P. mauritianus, Bojer, Eort. Maur. 254. 
Mauritius, on mountain rocks of the Pouce, Montagne Longue, Riviere Noire, 
etc. Also Arabia, Madagascar and Natal. Omime sauvage or Omi/ne bdtard. 
