Copy 1, Volume 3

The English flora / By Sir James Edward Smith.

  • Smith, James Edward, 1759-1828.
Date:
1824-1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The English flora / By Sir James Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    118/542 (page 106)
    Cor. twice the length of the calyx, with a yellow hairy protube¬ rance at each side of its mouth. 298. ORIGANUM. Marjoram. Linn. Gen. 297. Juss. 115. FI. Br. 638. Tourn. t. 94. Lam. £.511. Involucrwn of numerous, imbricated, dilated, flat, coloured, permanent leaves, one under each flower, longer than the calyx, forming a quadrangular spurious catkin. Calyx with an even, bluntly angular, tube, more or less per¬ fectly one- or two-lipped, but various in the different species. Cor. ringent; tube rather longer than the ca¬ lyx, a little compressed; throat slightly funnel-shaped, rather longer than the tube, protuberant in front at the base; upper lip erect, nearly flat, obtuse, notched; lower in 3 deep, dependent, mostly equal, simple lobes. Filam. thread-shaped, the 2 longest, at least, longer than the corolla. Antli. distant, ovate, two-lobed. Germ, four- lobed. Style thread-shaped, ascending. Stigma very slightly notched. Seeds 4, ovate, in the bottom of the closed, permanent calyx. Pungent and gratefully aromatic herbs, in some instances rather shrubby; with upright, leafy, branched or pani- cled stems; ovate, stalked leaves; and copious, purple, or whitish, erect or drooping, often very elegant, jlovo- ers. No genus can be more evidently natural; but the principal character, founded on the involucrum, is not strictly classical. There are several beautiful Greek species. 1. O. vulgare. Common Marjoram. Heads of flowers roundish, panicled, crowded, erect. In- volucral leaves ovate, smooth. Calyx with five acute unequal teeth ; throat hairy. O. vulgare. Linn. Sp. PL 824. Willd.v.3.135. Fl.Br.639. Engl. Bot. v. 16. t. 1143. Curt. Lond. fuse. 5. t. 39. Woodv. t. 1 64. Hook. Scot. 184. FI. Dan. t. 1581. Bull. Fr. t. 193. Matth. Valgr. v.2.62. f. Corner. Epit.469. f. Dalech.Hist.887■/. Ehrh. PI. Off. 88. O. n. 233. Hall. Hist. v. 1. 102. O. vulgare spontaneum.. Rail Syn. 236. O. anglicum. Ger. Em. 666./. O. sylvestre, sen vulgare. Fuchs. Hist. 552. J. Ic.3\5.f. Origanum. Riv. Monop. Irr. t. 60. f. 1. In bushy places, on a lime-stone or gravelly soil.