Chapter C: NEPETA, Link. (BASIL-THYME.) Soft-hairy; stem ascending (1--3 deg. 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-acuminate; on wet limestone river-banks._

1. C. glabella, Benth. Smooth; _stems diffuse or spreading (1--2 deg. long)_; leaves slightly petioled, _oblong or oblong-linear_, narrowed at base (8''--2' long), _sparingly toothed_ or nearly entire; clusters 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 clusters, 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.

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

3. C. Clinopodium, Benth. (BASIL.) Hairy, erect (1--2 deg. high); leaves ovate, petioled, nearly entire; flowers (pale purple) in globular clusters; 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.--Clusters few-flowered, loose, one-sided, with few and mostly ovate bracts resembling the leaves. (Name from [Greek: me/lissa], _a bee_; the flowers yielding abundance of honey.)