824 BALLOTA. [class XIV. OKUER 



GENUS XIII. BALLO'TA.— Linn. Horehound. 



Nat. Ord. Labia'ieje. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx salver-shaped, ten ribbed, with live broad bristle 



pointed teeth. Corolla with the upper lip concave, the lower 



three-cleft, the middle lobe obcordate, the tube with a hairy ring 



internally. — Name from ^aXXurn, from ^aXXw, to reject or throw 



away from the very disagreeable smell which the whole plant has 



when rubbed or bruised. 



1. B. ni\gra, Linn. (Fig. 951.) Stinking Black Horehound. Leaves 



ovate, petiolated, crenato-serrated ; calyx with broad ovate acute bristle 



pointed teeth. 



English Botany, t. 46.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 102.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 230.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 205. 



/9. alba. Flowers white, the whole plant pale green, and clothed with 

 close slight pubescence, almost smooth. 

 B. alba, Linn. — B. nigra. ^. Hudson. 



Jtoot spreading. Stem erect, from two to three feet high, much 

 branched and spreading, square, hollow, often of a purplish colour, 

 clolhed with soft silky shaggy reflexed hairs, or with close down, 

 almost smooth. Leaves numerous, roundish ovate, the lower ones 

 heart-shaped at the base, the footstalks broad and channeled, variable 

 in length, strongly and unequally crenated or crenato-serrated, hoary, 

 with close silky pubescence, almost woolly, paler beneath than above, 

 in /3. alba the leaves and whole plant paler, and the pubescence close, 

 thin, almost wanting. Injlorescence stalked axillary whorls of nume- 

 rous crowded flowers. Bracteas bristle-shaped, downy. Calyx salver- 

 shaped, the tube strongly ribbed, the throat dilated and veiny, the teeth 

 ovale, acute, bristle pointed, hairy. Corolla pale purple, or white, 

 scarcely longer than the calyx, downy, upper lip oblong, concave, 

 notched, the lower three lobed, variegated with dark purple, the lateral 

 lobes oblong, the middle broad, deeply notched. Stamens curved 

 beneath the upper lip. Anthers ovate, of two valves. Seeds tri- 

 angular, oblong, smooth, dark brown, almost black. 



Habitat — Waste places, under hedges, &c., frequent ; /3. alba much 

 less common. 



Perennial; flowering in July and August. 



Stinking Horehound is considered a useful remedy in scurvy and 

 many other cutanious eruptions by the country people, who boil it and 

 use it as a vegetable. It is not, however, used so much now as 

 formerly. 



