LABIATE TEIBE 47 



are of a dull faded-looking purple hue. The stem is two or three feet in 

 height, and the whole plant has a very disagreeable odour. It is not often 

 seen in woods and hedges, far away from houses ; but there are few English 

 villages or towns, except in Scotland and Ireland, in or near which we might 

 not find it. It is one of those plants which follow man, and besides being 

 pretty general all over Europe, it is to be found in Australia wherever the 

 English colonist has come, and the Horehound raises its tall stem by many 

 of the sheep-stations of that country. The French call it Ballote, the 

 Germans Zahnhse, the Dutch Ballote, and the Italians Marrohio. The Swedes 

 think it a remedy in almost every disease to which cattle are liable. 



9. Motherwort (Leonarits). 



Motherwort {L. cardiaca). — Leaves stalked, lower ones palmate, 

 5-clcft and toothed, upper ones lanceolate and wedge-shaped, 3-lobed, the 

 uppermost almost entire ; perennial. This plant, though found in hedges 

 and on waste places in several parts of England, is neither common nor 

 indigenous. It occurs in Scotland and Ireland occasionally. It is easily dis- 

 tinguished from any other plant of the Labiate order by the palmate form of 

 its lower leaves. Its foliage is of dull green, and the branched stem about 

 three feet in height. The flowers expand in August, and form thick whorls 

 of purplish-pink, or sometimes white, hairy blossoms, with a downy upper 

 lip. Its name of cardiaca was given because the plant was formerly supposed 

 to cure, not alone heart-burn, but the mental malady figuratively called 

 heart-ache. It is slightly astringent, and has been used in Russia as a 

 remedy for canine diseases. It has a very bitter and disagreeable flavour, 

 and an unpleasant odour. The French call the plant V Agripaume, and it is 

 the Hartgeqxm of the Dutch, the Herzgespann of the Germans, and the 

 Agripcdme of the Italians and Spanish. An old herbalist says of it : — " There 

 is no better herb to drive away melancholy ; and against vapours, to 

 strengthen the heart and make a merrie blythe soul, than this herbe ; there- 

 fore the Latins called it Cardiaca. It may be kept in syrup or conserve." 

 The seeds of this plant are numerous, and are round and black. 



10. Hemp-nettle (Gcdedpsis). 



1. Red Hemp-nettle (G. Iddanum). Stem either smooth or covered 

 with soft down, not swollen below, the joints; leaves lanceolate, slightly 

 serrated, rather small, stalked, downy on both sides ; calyx having some- 

 times a few glands ; upper lip of the corolla slightly notched ; annual. This 

 plant is not unfrequent in gravelly and sandy fields, having, in August and 

 September, purple flowers, mottled Avith crimson and white, and shaggy 

 externally. It often grows on limestone rubbish, and a variety of the plant 

 with narrow, almost entire leaves has been found at Southampton, among 

 the shingle of the beach ; this is by some regarded as a sub-species under 

 the name G. angusfifolia. The stem is nearly a foot high, with opposite 

 branches. 



2. Downy Hemp-nettle (G. ochroletka). — Stem downy with soft hairs, 

 not thickened at the joints ; leaves egg-shaped, lanceolate, serrated, soft and 

 downy on both sides, ixpper leaves egg-shaped ; calyx glandular, shaggy with 



