N. ORD.—LABIAT ZA. 124 
Tribe.—STACHYDEA. 
GENUS.—LAMIUM,* TOURN. 
SEX, SXST.—DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMA. 
LAMIUM. 
DEAD NETTLE. 
SYN.—LAMIUM ALBUM, LINN. 
COM. NAMES.—DEAD NETTLE, WHITE ARCHANGEL; (FR.) L’ORTIE 
BLANCHE; (GER.) WEISSE TAUBNESSEL, WEHISSBIENENSANG. 
A TINCTURE OF THE LEAVES AND FLOWERS OF LAMIUM ALBUM, LINN. 
Description—This more or less erect, hairy, and very leafy perennial herb, 
grows to a height of 1 foot or more. Stem decumbent at the base. Leaves ovate, 
acuminate, coarsely and doubly serrate, with a cordate or truncate base; peteoles 
manifest upon the upper, and long, upon the lower part of the plant. /xflorescence 
in several axillary whorls; flowers large. Calyx tubular-campanulate, about 5- 
nerved; /eeth 5, nearly equal, very slender, and awl-pointed, but not spinescent. 
Corolla white, about 1 inch long; ¢wée curved upward from an obliquely-contracted 
base, having a ring of hairs inside; /hroat rather narrow; upper ip oblong, forni- 
cate, narrowed at the base; /ateral ips small, broadened down to the throat, and 
each bearing upon its upper margin a spur-like appendage that appears like a 
projection from the throat; lower Lp spreading, 3-lobed, the middle lobe notched 
at the apex, and contracted into an almost stipitate claw at the base. Stamens 4, 
ascending under the galeate upper lip of the corolla, and not deflexed after anthe- 
sis, the anterior (inferior) pair longer, both pairs parallel and fertile ; anthers hir- 
sute, approximate in pairs; ce//s 2, divergent, opening lengthwise. Sty/e filiform, 
forked at the apex into 2 divergent, stigmatose, pointed lobes. uélets somewhat 
triquetrous, sharply 3-angled, truncate, and hollowed out at the apex. 
History and Habitat.—The Dead Nettle comes to us from Great Britain, 
France, and Germany, where it grows in waste places and along hedges ; with us 
it is becoming naturalized in Eastern New England, where it takes up its usual 
habitat, and blossoms in July and August. ee f 
The very unpleasant odor and bitter taste of this species causes it to be 
exempt from use by grazing cattle; yet Linnzus says that in Sweden it is gath- 7 
ered by the peasants and cooked as a pot-herb, the process of boiling dissipating, = 
in the most part, the principles of the plant. | 
* Aatpo;, daimos, 
is likened in appearance, 
the throat, alluding to the ringent corolla; or Jamia, a witch, hag, or demon, to which the flower Pact 
