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Show COMMON BALM. MELISSA OFFICINALIS. DITTANYOF CRETE. ORIGANUM DICTAMNUS. Class XIV, Didynamia. Order I. Gymnospermia. Essent. Gen. Cuan. Calyx angular, scariose, with the upper Lip ascend: ing, bifid. Spec. Cuar, Class XIV. Didynamia. Order I. Gymnospermia. Esseyt, Gen, Cuar, Strobile four-sided, spiked, collecting the calyxes. Srec, Cuar, Inferior Leaves tomentose: Spikes nodding . Racemes axillary, verticillate: Pedicels simple. a. DESCRIPTION. Srem rises two or three feet. rr ——— Leaves egg-shaped, spreading, rough, ribbed, veined, deeplyserrated, of a bright green, placed upon long petioles. Flowers white, ringent, proceeding from the ale of the wings. HISTORY. Balmis a perennial plant, which grows wild on the Alps and Pyrennees, andis frequently cultivated in our gardens. It has a pleasant smell, and a weak, roughish, aromatic taste. The young shoots have the strongest flavour; the flowers, and the herbitself when old, or produced in very moist rich soils or rainy seasons, are much weaker both in smell and taste. MEDICAL. USE. It is principally used in the form of a watery infusion, which is drunk in the manner of tea, DESCRIPTION. y Tk rises al Dout a foot. Leaves ovate, blunt, opposite, on she ‘ . Hort footstalks, covered with soft hairs. Flowers purple. *ractew tumerous, coloured. Corolla lipped, upperstraight, under cut into three obtuse lobes, middle one largest, HISTORY. Flowe ts from June till August; native of the island of Candia, Where to Mentose plants abound. MEDICAL VIRTUES, The Latin poe t makesit vulner ary, a virtue so much cele. brated in ¢t le dark ages : . Non illa feris incognita capris climtergo volucres heesere sagitte.—/EN SSS Gray "na, . xii. All. ; certay, ly a stimul } It is> Certain ant, and thought to be emmenagogu e5 Ut its real vin z *S Tealvirtues are but ill understood as yet, |