Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 132. Cl. 14. Ord. 1. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. ord. Labiatae. G. 1116. Strobile four-cornered, spiked, collecting the calices.

Corolla with the upper lip erect and flat, the under three-parted, with the segments equal. Species 10. O. vulgare. Common Marjoram. Med. Bot. 3d edit.

344. t.123. Smith, Flor. Brit. 639. Eng. Bot. 1143. Species 15. O. Majorana. Sweet Marjoram. Med. Bot. 3d edit.

345.t.124.

1. Origanum vulgare.3

Officinal. Origanum, Lond. Oleum ex herba, Dub. Common

Marjoram leaves.

Syn. Oriang (F.), Dort, Wohlgemuth (G.), Moriolein (Dutch), Meiran (Dan.), Mejram (Swed.), Majeran (Pol.), Origano (I.), Origano Sylvestre (S.), Mange rona (Port.).

1 Brisson. 2 Pelletier, Ann, de Chim. lxix. p. 90.

Dioscoridis,

This plant is indigenous and perennial, growing on dry, chalky, and gravelly hills, flowering from July to September. The root is creeping and fibrous, sending up erect, branching, trichotomous, tetragonous stems, about eighteen inches in height, downy, and of a purplish hue. The leaves are ovate, entire, somewhat hairy, ciliated, punctured, and of a deep yellowish green colour. The flowers are in terminal panicles, of a pink purple or rose colour, and furnished with ovate, sessile, brownish red bractes. The calyx is tubular, toothed; the segments being nearly equal: the corolla is funnel-shaped, with the upper lip bifid and obtuse, and the under trifid, blunt, and spreading. The filaments are furnished with double anthers, and the style is filiform, with a bifid reflected stigma.

Qualities.-The odour is agreeable and aromatic, and the taste warm and pungent, much resembling thyme. In distillation with water it affords a very acrid, penetrating, volatile oil, on which its qualities depend.

Medical properties and uses.-Common marjoram is regarded as tonic, stomachic, and emmenagogue. It was formerly used in debilities of the stomach; but is now neglected. The dose is from grs. x. to Эj., in powder.

Officinal preparation.- Oleum Origani, L.

2. Origanum Majorana.1

Officinal. Origani Majoranae herba, Edin. Dub. Sweet Marjoram.

Syn. Marjolaine (F.), Majoran (G.), Maggiorana (I.), Origano (S), Mir-zunjoosh (Arab.), Marroo ( Tam.)

This is an annual plant, a native of Portugal and Syria; but cultivated in our gardens for culinary and medicinal purposes, and flowering in July and August. The root is long, brown and fibrous; the stems numerous, woody, branching, and rising a foot and a half in height The leaves are downy, entire, ovate, petiolate, and of a pale green colour. The flowers are small, white, appearing successively among the bractes, which are numerous, and form roundish, compact, terminal spikes. The calyx is tubular, five-toothed, with the teeth acute; the corolla funnel-shaped and bilabiate; the upper lip erect and roundish; the lower cut into three-pointed segments.

It is cut for medicinal use when it begins to flower, in July.

Qualities.-The odour is pleasant, and the taste moderately warm, bitterish and aromatic. Both alcohol and water extract the virtues of sweet marjoram; and, in distillation with water, it yields a large portion of volatile oil, which, on being long kept, becomes solid.

Dioscoridis.

Medical properties and uses,-Sweet marjoram is tonic, and was formerly regarded as possessing errhine powers. It is scarcely ever used except as a culinary herb, or as an adjunct to cephalic snuffs, to which, however, it adds no efficacy.