Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1 918. 
•}    Coriaria  myrtifolia  as  an  Adulterant. 
559 
marjoram  has  generally  been  attributed  to  Origanum  majoranoides 
Willd.,  which  admittedly  is  very  closely  allied  to  0.  major  ana  L. 
Zornig4  gives  as  a  "sophistication  of  true  marjoram,  Origanum 
Maru  L.,  indigenous  to  Crete  and  Palestine  and  grown  by  us  in  the 
garden  as  winter  marjoram,  which  has  rounded  ovate,  thick  and 
white  hoary  leaves." 
To  what  extent  the  several  above-named  species  of  Origanum 
contribute  to  the  commercial  supplies  of  sweet  marjoram  or  how 
far  cultivation  and  hybridization  has  affected  the  commercial  product 
remain  as  unsolved  problems.  In  all  of  the  lots  of  sweet  marjoram 
that  I  have  examined,  there  have  been  noted  variations  in  the  flower 
heads  and  in  the  leaves  present  from  the  descriptions  of  the  type 
plant.  The  sample  under  consideration  in  the  present  investigation 
was  no  exception.  From  this  was  separated  a  number  of  small 
ovate,  thick  leaves  with  appressed  white  pubescence,  that  could  very 
readily  have  been  attributed  to  Origanum  Maru  L.  (Fig.  3)  and 
certain  elongated  cylindrical  inflorescences  that  could  have  been 
assigned  to  Origanum  majoranoides  Willd. 
Fig.  3.   Leaves  of  Labiatae,  with  appressed  pubescence,  occurring  with 
Furthermore,  an  allowable  percentage  of  unavoidable  extraneous 
matter  such  as  grasses  and  other  plants  growing  with  the  marjoram 
and  accidentally  collected  in  the  harvesting  should  be  officially  de- 
termined and,  likewise,  the  ash  content  (varying  from  12  to  20  per 
cent.)  should  be  standardized  at  not  over  15  or  16  per  cent. 
In  a  further  elaboration  of  his  studies  of  the  marjorams,  E.  M. 
Holmes5  considers  Origanum  Maru  L.  as  the  parent  plant  and  states 
"one  of  its  forms  appears  to  be  the  parent  of  the  sweet  marjoram 
so  widely  cultivated  in  most  civilized  countries,  but  the  botanical 
origin  of  which  has  hitherto  been  very  obscure."  He  traces  here 
the  historical  records  and  the  etymology  of  the  name  Marjoram  and 
concludes  "  that  Origanum  majorana  is  probably  only  a  form  of 
4  Arzneidrogen,  Vol.  1,  p.  291. 
5  The  Perfumery  and  Essential  Oil  Record,  March,  1913. 
9  $f 
Sweet  Marjoram. 
