826 MARRDBIUM. tcLASs iv. order i. 



GENUS XV. MARRU'BIUM.— Linn. White Horehound. 



Nat. Ord, LABiA'TEiE. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx with ten ribs, and five or ten awned teetht 

 spreading when in fruit, the throat hairy. Corolla with the upper 

 lip straight, cloven, the lower one reflexed, three lobed, the middle, 

 lobe largest, emarginate. Nuts with the end triangular, trun- 

 cated. — Name of doubtful origin. 



1. M. vuVgrre, Linn. (Fig. 953 ) White Horehound. Stem erect, 

 bushy ; leaves roundish ovate, petiolated, unequally crenated, tomen- 

 tose, and reticulated with veins ; whorls of numerous axillary crowded 

 flowers; calyx with ten bristle-shaped smooth hooked teeth. 



English Botany, t. 410. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 104. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 233. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 205. 



Root somewhat woody. Stem erect, or ascending from one to two 

 feet high, more or less branched, obtusely angular, thickly clothed 

 with fine white woolly pubescence. Leaves numerous, opposite, 

 roundish ovate, somewhat tapering at the base into a footstalk, the 

 upper ones sessile, the margin unequally crenated, clothed with soft 

 silky woolly pubescence, especially on the under side, and netted with 

 veins. Inflorescence axillary whorls of numerous crowded sessile 

 flowers. Calyx cylindrical, ten ribbed, very woolly, with ten awl- 

 shaped bristle-pointed teeth, smooth towards the ends, and hooked at 

 the extremity. Bracteas awl-shaped, woolly. Corolla white, downy, 

 the upper lip straight, deeply cleft into two linear lobes, the lower lip 

 three lobed, the lateral ones small, ovate, acute, the middle one large, 

 inversely heart-shaped, and sometimes notched. Stamens shorter than 

 the upper lip. Anthers small, oblong. Seeds inclosed in the hardened 

 calyx, contracted at the mouth, ovate oblong, triangular, smooth, pale 

 brown. 



Habitat. — Waste places and road sides; common in England, less 

 frequent in Scotland and Ireland. 



Perennial ; flowering in August. 



The leaves of this plant have a strong aromatic disagreeable smell, 

 and a very bitter durable taste, on account of which tonic stimulating 

 properties it has been strongly recommended in cases of hysteria, &c. 

 The leaves made into an infusion have been given with benefit in 

 chronic catarrh, and some other kinds of asthma; and made into a 

 syrup, or candied with sugar, it forms an excellent and commonly used 

 remedy in slight coughs. An extract is also made of the leaves, and 

 given in doses of from ten to thirty grains twice a day. Horehound is 

 not now so much esteemed as a medicine as it was some time since, 

 but it is a remedy of considerable benefit as a tonic expectorant. 



