satureineæ

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. A tribe of gamopetalous plants of the order Labiatæ, characterized by a four-parted ovary forming four smooth dry nutlets in fruit, and by flowers with the calyx-nerves thirteen or less, the corolla-lobes usually flat, and the stamens four, or sometimes two, and either straight and diverging or ascending. It includes about 42 genera, classed in 4 subtribes. They are shrubs or usually herbs, very strongly pervaded by the odor of mint, the flowers often but slightly labiate. For important genera, see Satureia (the type), Mentha (type of the family), Collinsonia, Cunila, Lycopus, and Pycnanthemum, prominent in the eastern United States, and Thymus, Melissa, Hedeoma, Hyssopus, Calamintha, Origanum, and Perilla, important genera of the Old World. See cuts under Hedeoma and Origanum.