M. officinàlis, L. (Common Balm.) Upright, branching, perennial, pubescent; leaves broadly ovate, crenate-toothed, lemon-scented; corolla nearly white.—Sparingly escaped from gardens. (Nat. from Eu.)
17. HEDEÒMA, Pers. Mock Pennyroyal.
Calyx ovoid or tubular, gibbous on the lower side near the base, 13-nerved, bearded in the throat, 2-lipped; upper lip 3-toothed, the lower 2-cleft. Corolla 2-lipped; upper lip erect, flat, notched at the apex, the lower spreading, 3-cleft. Fertile stamens 2; the upper pair reduced to sterile filaments or wanting.—Low, odorous annuals, with small leaves, and loose axillary clusters of flowers (in summer), often forming terminal leafy racemes. (Altered from ἡδυόσμον, an ancient name of Mint, from its sweet scent.)
[*] Sterile filaments manifest; leaves oblong-ovate, petioled, somewhat serrate.
1. H. pulegioìdes, Pers. (American Pennyroyal.) Erect, branching, hairy; whorls few-flowered; upper calyx-teeth triangular, the lower setaceous-subulate; corolla (bluish, pubescent) scarcely exserted (2–3´´ long); taste and odor nearly of the true Pennyroyal (Mentha Pulègium) of Europe.—Common from N. Eng. to Dak., and southward.
[*][*] Sterile filaments minute or obsolete; leaves narrow, entire, sessile or nearly so.
2. H. híspida, Pursh. Mostly low; leaves linear, crowded, almost glabrous, somewhat hispid-ciliate; bracts spreading or reflexed; upper flowers rather crowded; calyx-teeth all subulate, equalling the bluish corolla.—Plains, Minn. and Dak. to W. Ill. and La.
3. H. Drummóndi, Benth. Pubescent or puberulent, a span or two high; leaves oblong to linear; bracts mostly erect; calyx hirsute or hispid, its teeth at length connivent, the lower nearly twice as long as the upper.—Central Neb. and Kan. to Tex., and westward.
18. SÁLVIA, L. Sage.
Calyx 2-lipped; upper lip 3-toothed or entire, the lower 2-cleft. Corolla deeply 2-lipped, ringent; upper lip straight or scythe-shaped, entire or barely notched, the lower spreading or pendent, 3-lobed, its middle lobe larger. Stamens 2, on short filaments, jointed with the elongated transverse connective, one end of which, ascending under the upper lip, bears a linear 1-celled (half-) anther, the other, usually descending, bears an imperfect or deformed (half-) anther or none at all.—Flowers mostly large and showy, in spiked, racemed, or panicled whorls, produced in summer. (Name from salvo, to save, in allusion to the reputed healing qualities of Sage.)