810 GLECHOMA. [CLASS XIV. ORDEE I. 



ovate, with an acute point, and more or less deeply heart-sliaped base, 

 deeply and coarsely serrated, green above, white and hoary beneath. 

 Inflorescence whorled spikes of numerous crowded flowers, the whorls 

 sub-corymbose, with short round hoary peduncles, and awl-shaped 

 bracteas, nearly as long as the calyx, and hoary externally. Calyx 

 ribbed, tubular, slightly curved, and the mouth oblique, the teeth 

 nearly equal, awl-shaped, after flowering the calyx is swollen into an 

 ovale form, and the throat contracted. Corolla about as long again as 

 the calyx, the throat dilated, downy, white, the lower lip pink, with 

 dark crimson spols. Stamens included, the anthers crimson. Seeds 

 ovate, smooth, angularly compressed. 



Habitat. — Waste and shady places; not unfrequent in England* 

 rare in Scotland, Craig Nethan Castle, Glasgow, and between Culross 

 and Kincardine; in Ireland near .the river Dodder, above Rathfarn- 

 ham Bridge, Banks of the Shannon, near Limerick, and other places. 



Perennial; flowering in July and August. 



The odour arising from this plant is remarkable, from the pleasure 

 which cats seem to derive from it ; they paw it, chew it, and roll 

 themselves upon it apparently in the greatest delight. It was observed 

 by Ray, and has since been confirmed by others, that the plant in a 

 flourishing state does not attract their notice ; but if it be bruised, 

 rubbed, or languid, they immediately commence their attack upon it, 

 hence has arisen the old English doggrel lines : — 

 «* If you set it 

 The cats will eat it, 

 If you sow it 



The cats will not know it.'' 

 When the plant is bruised, or in a languid state, the essential oil 

 on which its properties depend escapes in a more concentrated form, 

 than when it is growing and in a vigorous state, on which account it 

 more readily attracts the attention of the cats. 



GENUS VII. GLECHO'MA.— Linn. Ground-Ivy. 



Nat. Ord, Labia'tje. Juss. 

 Gen. Char. Calyx tubular, five toothed, many ribbed. Corolla with 

 the upper lip plane, bifid, the lower three-cleft, the middle lobe, 

 obcordate, plane. Stamens with the anthers in pairs, forming a 

 cross. — Name from yXri^wv, a kind of Thyme of the Greeks. 

 1. G. hedera'cea, Linn. (Fig. 932.) Ground-Ivy. Leaves kidney- 

 shaped, deeply crenated, whorls of six flowers; calyx tubular, with 

 acute bristle-pointed teeth. 



English Botany, t. 853.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 89.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 233. — Nepeta glechomaf Bentb. — 

 Lindley, Synopsis, p. 202. 



