Pogostemon
(from pogon, a beard, and stemon, a stamen; alluding to the filaments being generally bearded in the middle). SYN. Wensea. ORD. Labiatae. A genus comprising about thirty species of stove or greenhouse herbs (or shrubs?), natives of the East Indies, the Malayan Archipelago, and Japan. Flowers disposed in many-or rarely few-flowered whorls; calyx ovoid-tubular, equal, five-toothed, often elongated during fructescence; corolla tube included or rarely shortly exserted; limb spreading, cut into four sub-equal lobes; bracts usually small. Nutlets ovoid or oblong, smooth. Leaves opposite. The only species now in cultivation are those described below. For culture, see Colebrookia.
P. Patchouli (Patchouly). fl. whitish, tinged with purple, small, in dense spikes, which are both terminal and axillary June. l. broadly ovate, stalked, 3in. to 4in. long. h. 3ft. East Indies, 1848. Greenhouse soft-wooded shrub. This species affords the celebrated Patchouli perfume, or Pucha-pat, of the Hindoos; the odour is very peculiar, and even disagreeable to some people, but, in India, it is one of the commonest perfumes found in the bazaars. P. plectranthoides (Plectranthus-like). fl. white, sub-secund, glomerately spicate; calyx and bracts coloured at top, villous; spikes ovate-cylindrical, pedunculate, panicled. July. l. ovate, cuneated or rounded at base, doubly serrated; cauline ones 2in. to 3in. long; upper ones small; uppermost bract-like. Stem 2ft. to 3ft. high; branches obtusely tetragonal. East Indies. Stove shrub. (B. M. 3238.)