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A J U G A Chamsepitys.
Ground Pine.
D I D Y N A M I A Gymnofpgrmia.
G en. C har. Upper lip of the Corolla very minute,
and much fhorter than the ltamina.
S pec. C har. Leaves three-cleft, linear, entire. Flowers
feffile, lateral, folitary. Stem diffufe.
Syn . Teucrium Chamaepitys. Linn. Sp. PI. 787.
Hudf. FI. An. 247. IFHh. Pot. Arr. $ 90. Relb.
Cant. Q.20. Dickf. Dr. Plants? 9.
Chamaepitys vulgaris. Rail Syn. 244.
Bugula foliis imis linearibus, caulinis tripartitis.
Hall. Hiß. n. 284.
C o m m u n i c a t e d by Mr. Edward Forfter, junior, and
Mr. Jacob Rayer, from Purfleet in Effex, in April and May
laft. It abounds in fandy fields in Kent and Surry, but is other-
wife a fcarce plant.
Root fmall, branched, annual. Stems much branched, fpread-
ing) fquare, often reddifti. The firft two or three leaves are entire
; all the reft deeply three-cleft. The whole herb hairy, vifcid,
aromatic, and bitter. The corolla differs in ftrudlure from the
genuine fpecies of Teucrium ; for the upper lip, inftead of being
deeply divided and divaricated, with the ftamina projefting between
its lobes, is very Ihort and notched, exaftly as it ought
to be in Ajuga, to which genus, called by him Bugula, it is
therefore referred by Haller. Owing no implicit obedience to
any fyftem or laws but thofe of truth and nature, as far as they
are difcernible, we adopt his alteration * becaufe we think it a
good one. In fupport of his opinion he quotes Guettard, who
indeed fays this plant is no Teucrium, but who would reftore
Tournefort’s genus of Chamsepitys, only calling it Tv a with
Rivinus. Tournefort’s reafon for feparating Chamsepitys from
Ajuga (his Bugula) is, that its flowers are folitary, whereas thofe
of Ajuga are verticillated; but this is a moft trifling and un-
fcientific difference, and not ftriftly conftant. Guettard and
La Marek (Encycl. 501) fay> the true Ajugas are diftinguilhed
from the Teucriums by not having the calyx fwelled on one
fide as the fruit ripens. This however is not true, witnefs A.
alpina and pyramidalis, nor would it fignify if it were. It muft
be acknowledged indeed, that the habit of Chamaepitys is unlike
that of the Ajugas of Linnaeus; but his Teucrium Iva,
which belongs to the fame genus, is the connefting link between
them, by its pubefcence and the denticulation of its
leaves approaching Ajuga alpina, which is moreover a bitter
aromatic plant.
* As Prof. Schreber has done, Plant, Vertlc, Vnilai, 19.