MARJORAM
Marjoram (Origanum marjorum). Origanum (meaning in Greek, joy of the mountains).
Sweet marjoram, a genus of the natural order of plants labiatæ or mint family. It is chiefly a native of Greece and the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It is an annual shrubby plant with a stem about one foot high, and has a ten-ribbed, five-toothed calyx, loose spikes, and broad bracts. It is peculiarly aromatic and fragrant, and is much used, as other mint plants are used, in common cooking. It has nearly an entire ovate, or egg-shaped, grayish or green, leaf, covered on both sides with a thin down, situated about three roundish heads of small purplish flowers crowded in cylindrical or oblong spikes, which are imbricated with colored bracts. It flowers in August. The flowers are very small and inconspicuous. Marjoram contains a yellowish essential oil (oil of marjoram or oil of origanum), which is obtained from some species by distillation. It yields fifteen ounces from one hundred and fifty pounds of the recent-cut plants. This oil will become solid by standing. It is used for toothache and for cancers. An infusion of it is a stimulant and is a good remedy for nervousness. It is mixed with olive oil to make a stimulating liniment, which is used as a remedy for rheumatic complaints and for baldness, and in case of sprains and bruises. The common marjoram, wild (O. vulgare, is found on dry hilly, bushy places.
PARSLEY
1 Ripening fruit
2 Ripening fruit, more developed
3 Flower
4 Stamen
5 Pistil
6 Seed