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CLINOPODIUM vulgare.
Wild Basil.
BID YNAMIA Gymnospermia.
G en. Ch a r. Cal. 2-lipped. Involucrum of many taper
leaves placed under the whorl.
Spec. Ch a r. Whorls hairy. Floral leaves bristle-shaped.
Flower-stalks branched. Leaves slightly serrated.
Syn. Clinopodium vulgare. Linn. Sp. PI. 821. Sm.
FI. Brit. 638. B u d s. 261. With. 535. H ull. 135.
Relh. 236. Sibtk. 188. Abbot. 132.
C. origano simile. Raii Syn. 239.
N o t uncommon in bushy places by road sides where the soil
is calcareous or gravelly, blossoming from July to the end of
autumn. Our specimen was gathered in a lane at Saham,
Norfolk, in September last.
Root perennial, fibrous or somewhat creeping. Stems wavy,
but not regularly zigzag, hairy, with four bluntish angles.
Leaves on stalks, ovate, rather obtuse, slightly serrated, hairy,
especially at the back of the veins, where the hairs form a regular
fringe. Whorls terminal and axillary, not many, but composed
of numerous red flowers, which stand on branched hairy
stalks. These bear, at the foot of the little stalks on which
the flowers stand, several setaceous hairy leaves, called by
Linnaeus an involucrum in his generic character, and Iraclece
in his specific one, and to which he was obliged to have
recourse (as in the umbelliferous tribe) for forming his generic
character; a character natural and certain enough, if not
rigidly conformable to his own laws. Like a true philosopher,
he sometimes sacrificed them to truth, no philosopher ever
did so always. Calyx ribbed and hairy; its lower teeth longest
and most prominent. Corolla twice as long as the calyx,
handsome, with 2 hairy knobs at the orifice. The whole
herb is aromatic, with a faint thyme-like odour.