DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT.
The stalk is square ([Fig, 114]), branching, and when cultivated, attains a height of some four feet; though, as it grows in waste places, it is seldom more than three feet. The branches, and also the leaves, are opposite (Figs. [114] and [115]), and in the axiles of the latter are whorls of blossoms (Figs. [115] and [116]), which succeed each other from below to the top of the branching stems. The corolla is like that of all the mints, while the calyx has five teeth, which are sharp and spine-like in the nutlets as they appear at the base of the leaves ([Fig, 115]). As they near the top, the whorls of blossoms and succeeding seeds are successively nearer together, and finally become very crowded at the apex ([Fig, 116]). The leaves are long and palmately lobed ([Fig, 115]). The small blossom is purple.
Fig. 116.
