Part 137 (1/2)

-- 1. _Flowers loose, without long-subulate bracts; calyx villous in the throat._

[*] _p.u.b.escent; peduncles short but mostly distinct; bracts minute._

C. NePETA, Link. (BASIL-THYME.) Soft-hairy; stem ascending (1--3 high); leaves petioled, broadly ovate, obtuse, crenate; corolla (3” long) twice the length of the calyx.--Dry waste grounds, Md. to Ark. (Nat.

from Eu.)

[*][*] _Glabrous or nearly so; common peduncles hardly any; pedicels 1--5, slender, the conspicuous bracts subulate-ac.u.minate; on wet limestone river-banks._

1. C. glabella, Benth. Smooth; _stems diffuse or spreading (1--2 long)_; leaves slightly petioled, _oblong or oblong-linear_, narrowed at base (8”--2' long), _sparingly toothed_ or nearly entire; cl.u.s.ters 3--5-flowered; corolla (purplish, 5--6” long) fully twice the length of the calyx.--S. Ind., Ky., and Tenn.

2. C. Nuttallii, Gray. Smaller; the flowering stems more upright (5--9'

high), _with narrower mostly entire leaves and fewer-flowered cl.u.s.ters, while sterile runners from the base bear ovate thickish leaves only 2--5” long_. (C. glabella, var. Nuttallii, _Gray_.)--Niagara Falls to Minn., south to Mo. and Tex.

-- 2. _Flowers in sessile dense many-flowered cl.u.s.ters, and involucrate with conspicuous setaceous-subulate rigid bracts; calyx nearly naked in the throat._

3. C. Clinopdium, Benth. (BASIL.) Hairy, erect (1--2 high); leaves ovate, petioled, nearly entire; flowers (pale purple) in globular cl.u.s.ters; hairy bracts as long as the calyx.--Borders of thickets and fields, naturalized extensively, but indigenous from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mts. (Eu., Asia)

16. MELiSSA, L. BALM.

Calyx with the upper lip flattened and 3-toothed, the lower 2-cleft.

Corolla with a recurved-ascending tube. Stamens 4, curved and conniving under the upper lip. Otherwise nearly as Calamintha.--Cl.u.s.ters few-flowered, loose, one-sided, with few and mostly ovate bracts resembling the leaves. (Name from ???ssa, _a bee_; the flowers yielding abundance of honey.)

M. OFFICINaLIS, L. (COMMON BALM.) Upright, branching, perennial, p.u.b.escent; leaves broadly ovate, crenate-toothed, lemon-scented; corolla nearly white.--Sparingly escaped from gardens. (Nat. from Eu.)

17. HEDEMA, Pers. MOCK PENNYROYAL.

Calyx ovoid or tubular, gibbous on the lower side near the base, 13-nerved, bearded in the throat, 2-lipped; upper lip 3-toothed, the lower 2-cleft. Corolla 2-lipped; upper lip erect, flat, notched at the apex, the lower spreading, 3-cleft. Fertile stamens 2; the upper pair reduced to sterile filaments or wanting.--Low, odorous annuals, with small leaves, and loose axillary cl.u.s.ters of flowers (in summer), often forming terminal leafy racemes. (Altered from ?d??s??, an ancient name of Mint, from its sweet scent.)

[*] _Sterile filaments manifest; leaves oblong-ovate, petioled, somewhat serrate._

1. H. pulegiodes, Pers. (AMERICAN PENNYROYAL.) Erect, branching, hairy; whorls few-flowered; upper calyx-teeth triangular, the lower setaceous-subulate; corolla (bluish, p.u.b.escent) scarcely exserted (2--3” long); taste and odor nearly of the true _Pennyroyal_ (Mentha Pulegium) of Europe.--Common from N. Eng. to Dak., and southward.

[*][*] _Sterile filaments minute or obsolete; leaves narrow, entire, sessile or nearly so._

2. H. hispida, Pursh. Mostly low; _leaves linear, crowded, almost glabrous_, somewhat hispid-ciliate; _bracts spreading or reflexed_; upper flowers rather crowded; _calyx-teeth all subulate_, equalling the bluish corolla.--Plains, Minn. and Dak. to W. Ill. and La.

3. H. Drummondi, Benth. _p.u.b.escent or p.u.b.erulent_, a span or two high; _leaves oblong to linear; bracts mostly erect_; calyx hirsute or hispid, its teeth at length connivent, _the lower nearly twice as long as the upper_.--Central Neb. and Kan. to Tex., and westward.

18. SaLVIA, L. SAGE.

Calyx 2-lipped; upper lip 3-toothed or entire, the lower 2-cleft.

Corolla deeply 2-lipped, ringent; upper lip straight or scythe-shaped, entire or barely notched, the lower spreading or pendent, 3-lobed, its middle lobe larger. Stamens 2, on short filaments, jointed with the elongated transverse connective, one end of which, ascending under the upper lip, bears a linear 1-celled (half-) anther, the other, usually descending, bears an imperfect or deformed (half-) anther or none at all.--Flowers mostly large and showy, in spiked, racemed, or panicled whorls, produced in summer. (Name from _salvo_, to save, in allusion to the reputed healing qualities of Sage.)

[*] _Both anther-cells polliniferous; leaves mostly lyrately lobed or pinnatifid._

1. S. lyrata, L. (LYRE-LEAVED SAGE.) Low perennial (10--20' high), somewhat hairy; stem nearly simple and naked; root-leaves lyre-shaped or sinuate-pinnatifid, sometimes almost entire; those of the stem mostly a single pair, smaller and narrower; the floral oblong-linear, not longer than the calyx; whorls loose and distant, forming an interrupted raceme; upper lip of the blue-purple p.u.b.escent corolla (nearly 1' long) short, straight, not vaulted.--Woodlands and meadows, N. J. to Ill., south to Fla. and Tex.