The Labiatae, or family of mints, consists of about one hundred
and sixty genera, including the one to which the Oswego Tea of our
illustration belongs. Under these genera are classed over three
thousand distinct species. Many of these are well-known plants, such as
the mints, pennyroyal, anise, bergamot, fennel, catnip, sage, thyme,
lavender and rosemary. Representatives of this family are distributed
throughout the world in the temperate and tropical regions. In fact, it
is one of the most cosmopolitan of the plant families.
The characteristics of the family are very marked. The foliage
abounds in volatile oils which generally give off an aromatic odor,
especially when the leaves are bruised. The leaves are opposite and
usually arise from a four-sided stem. The flowers, as a rule, are
strongly two-lipped. This character gives to the family its scientific
name, which is derived from a Latin word meaning lip. The stamens are
attached to the corolla and are usually four in number, two of which
are longer than the others. The ovary is four-lobed, and the resulting
fruit consists of four nutlets, each containing one seed.
The Oswego Tea belongs to the genus Monarda, a group of plants named
in honor of Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish physician and botanist of
the sixteenth century. He wrote a number of valuable papers on the
medicinal and other economic plants, especially treating of those from
America. This genus includes about ten species, all natives of North
America and Mexico.
The Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma) is frequently called Bee Balm, and
locally it is often known as Fragrant Balm, Mountain Mint and Indian
Plume. This plant prefers a moist soil near the wooded banks of streams
and in the hilly and mountainous regions of Canada and the United
States, east of the Mississippi River. In North Carolina it is found at
an altitude of over five thousand feet.
The leaves are egg-shaped, elongated, taper-pointed and more or less
saw-toothed on the margins. The floral leaves are tinged with red of
nearly the same shade as that of the bright red and showy flowers. The
flowers which appear in July, August and September and are about two
inches in length, are massed in a dense, solitary and globular head,
which is situated at the end of the flower stalk.
The flowers produce an abundant nectar, which attracts bumblebees,
butterflies and humming birds; these by transferring the pollen from
flower to flower assist in the fertilization of the developing seeds.
The ordinary bees are barred from the sweets of this plant because of
their short tongues, though some forms will cut a hole in the side of
the corolla and obtain the nectar in this manner.
It is said that certain Indian tribes use this bark in preparing a
tea that is nearly as palatable as that made from the ordinary tea of
commerce.
[Illustration: OSWEGO TEA OR BEE BALM.
(_Monarda didyma._)
FROM "NATURE'S GARDEN."
COPYRIGHT 1900, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY.]