Dicotyledons with Gamopetalous Flowers — Labiatce. 
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Distribution.— A very large and cosmopolitan Natural Order, but especially characteristic, and 
relatively most numerous in genera, in countries bordering the Mediterranean, where Labiatse count 
as one of the five or six largest Orders. But few grow in very cold climates. 
Number of British Genera, 18; Species, 46. 
Leaves usually dotted with minute immersed glands, containing volatile, often aromatic, oil. 
FLOWERS usually collected in few-flowered cymes from the axils of opposite bracts or of the upper leaves 
when nearly sessile appearing as though verticillate. 
COROLLA bilabiate ; galeate as in Dead-Nettle (Lamium ), or upper lip very short as in Bugle (. Ajuga) and 
Germander ( Teucrium) : sometimes sub-regular, as in Mint (Mentha) and Marjoram (Origanum). 
Stamens 4, didynamous as in Dead-nettle, or equal as in Mint; or 2 as in Sage (Salvia) with very short 
filaments, and a long (distractile) connective separating the halves of each anther, of which one half is polleniferous 
and the other usually abortive and deformed. 
FRUIT of 4 dry i-seeded nuts. 
USES, &c.—None of the Labiatse are hurtful; nearly all are more or less aromatic, and many of them possess 
a bitter principle. These properties, variously proportioned, characterise a large number of species used as pot-herbs, 
condiments and perfumes, as Mint (Mentha), Penny-royal (M. Pulegium ), Marjoram (Origanum), Sage (Salvia), 
Thyme (Thymus), Balm (Melissa), Basil (Ocymum ), Savory ( Satureja), Hyssop (Hyssojpus ), Lavender (Lavendula), 
and Rosemary (Rosma/rinus). The powerful perfume Patchouli is the essential oil of the Indian Rogostemon 
Patchouli. 
Many Labiates are cultivated for ornament, more especially Mexican species of Salvia with brilliant scarlet or 
blue flowers, of Phlomis , Monarda, Leonotis, and coloured-leaved varieties of Perilla and Coleus . Horehound 
(Marrubium), Sage (Salvia officinalis), and a few others are used in domestic medicine as stomachics. 
