359 
Nepeta indica. Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 1199. (excl. syn, fide Br.), 
Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 3. p. 51. 
Ballota disticha. Zinn. Mant. p. 83. Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 1. 
p. 304. 
Nepeta amboinica. Zinn, Willd. (Spr.) 
Marrubium odoratissimum. Burm. &eyl. p. 153. t. 71. f. 1. 
Annual Stems erect, branched; branches spreading, 
diffuse, 4-sided, angles sharp, concave, villous, with reversed 
hairs. Branchlets opposite, axillary. eaves rather long, 
petioled, opposite, decussate, broadly subcordate, ovate, 
entire at the base, above crenate, covered on both sides 
with soft short hairs, which make them feel like velvet to 
the touch, dark-green above, pale beneath. Whorls axillary, 
on two or four short peduncles; these, in old plants, become 
elongated by the successive expansion of new flowers, into as 
Many recurved secund spikes, each flower furnished with two 
linear subspathulate bracteas, about half the length of the 
calyx, Calyx 5-cleft, divisions acute, slightly 10-furrowed, 
finely transversely reticulated, particularly when held between 
the eye and the light, hairy, and a little glandular. Corolla 
?-lipped ; upper Zip shorter than the stamens, entire, blunt ; 
under one large, 3-cleft, the lateral segments smaller, reflexed, 
the middle one large, obcordate, with the sides bent back- 
wards, of a fine reddish-purple colour, darker than any other 
Part of the corolla. Throat hairy; bottom of the tube closed 
with a nectariferous scale. Stamens: Filaments 4, two of 
them a little shorter, erect, protruding from the tube, very 
hairy. Anthers dissimilar, longer pair 1-, shorter 2-celled: cells 
Opening transversely, Pistil: Germen 4-parted ; Style filiform, 
increasing in thickness as it ascends, terminating in a 2-cleft 
stigma. Seeds 4, naked, lenticular, bright shining black. - 
This plant is extensively distributed over India, flowering 
during the cool months, and ripening its seeds in Mareh or 
April, It is called Vethupudihei, which signifies heat-cateher, 
®n account of the cooling properties which it is said to possess 
when administered in decoction, for the relief of hot bowel 
complaints and dysentery. 
