LABIATE 



LABIATE MINT FAMILY 



Nepeta hederacea, (L.) Trevisan. 



Light purple Ground-ivy, Cat's-foot, 



Gill-over-the-ground, Field-balm, 



May- July Creeping Charlie, Hayhoof, 



Robin-runaway, Haymaids, 



Alehoof, Hedge- 

 Gill-ale, maids. 



Nepeta: for derivation see Cataria. 



Hederacea: common botanical n^rne for ivy, in allusion to 

 the ivy-shaped leaf. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: fields and roadsides. 



THE PLANT: low, creeping, with more or less upright 

 branches, six to eighteen inches long; the stem four-angled, 

 with short, soft hairs, weak. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; kidney-shaped; hairy on both 

 surfaces; obtuse at the apex; petioled, the lower petioles 

 particularly long; the veining prominent. 



THE FLOWERS: clustered on short stems in the axils of 

 the leaves; corolla-tube decidedly longer than the calyx, 

 fringed with hairs and spotted; calyx hairy, with five 

 widely separated sepals, often magenta tinted; upper pair 

 of stamens much longer than the lower. 



THE FRUIT: achenes. 



A small, creeping plant with dark green, kidney-shaped 

 leaves and pale purple tubular flowers, spotted darker 

 near the throat. Its low-lying habit is well suggested by the 

 popular names of Gill-over-the-ground and Creeping 

 Charlie, although the plant must share the latter name 

 with quite different flowers. But the names of Alehoof 

 and Gill-ale are not easily understood until one realizes 

 that in the old days, prior to the use of hops, the plant 

 was used for flavouring and clarifying the home-brewed ale. 



328 



