48 LABIAT^E 



closely-pressed hairs, with a few gland-tipped hairs intermixed ; upper lip of 

 the corolla slightly notched ; annual. This rare plant, the stem of which is 

 from ten to twelve inches high, bears its large pale yellow flowers in July 

 and August. It has been found in sandy cornfields in Yorkshire, Durham, 

 Lincoln, Notts, and Essex, and also in Carnarvon. Also known as G. dnhia. 

 It is not a true native. 



3. Common Hemp-nettle {G. fef nUdt).— ^tem bristly, swollen below 

 the joints ; leaves egg-shaped, pointed, serrated and bristly ; calyx teeth 

 twice as long as the tube ; corolla with the tube as long as the calyx, upper 

 lip egg-shaped, erect ; annual. This is a common plant in cornfields, just 

 about the season when the wheat is ripening. In some fields, especially 

 where the soil is of chalk or gravel, the flower may be seen ornamenting the 

 short stubble long after the gleaners have carried away the scattered ears, 

 and blooming on till the winds of November are fast scattering leaf and 

 blossom. It also occurs sometimes in woods. It is an erect slender plant 

 about two feet high, with opposite spreading branches, having numerous 

 whorls of flowers, variegated with bright but pale purple and yellow, some- 

 times of a white tint, delicately tinged with purple. The whorls of flowers 

 are remarkable for the long sharp teeth of their calyxes, and the stems are 

 very much swollen beneath each pair of leaves. Dr. George Johnston tells 

 us in his "Flora of Berwick," that labourers in the harvest-field are some- 

 times affected with a severe inflammation of the hand or of a finger, which 

 they uniformly attribute to the sting of a Dog-nettle, the name hy which 

 this plant is known among them. " On examining its bristles," says this 

 writer, "we perceive that they consist of three or four tubular joints, anrl 

 arise from a swollen base or A'esicle. On the upper part of the branches, on 

 the calyxes and flowers, they are intermixed with others tipped with a gland. 

 Now the former seem fitted by their structure for containing and emitting a 

 fluid ; and though in general too soft to woimd, yet by chance, when rudely 

 pressed, they may perforate the skin, and lodge their contents, which must 

 ))e virulently poisonous, if the opinion of the cause of the disease be cori-ect." 

 It is not, however, impossible that the inflammation suftered by reapers may 

 be caused by the Stinking Chamomile {Anthemis cotula). The author of these 

 pages could never excite any irritation on the skin by handling the Hemp- 

 nettle, though A. cotula readily causes irritation. All persons are not, how- 

 ever, similarly afl"ected by the same plants, and she has known the hands of 

 some inflamed by the yarrow {Achillea millefolium), though on her own skin 

 it failed to produce any eff"ect. 



Our British species of Hemp-nettle do not appear to possess any medicinal 

 virtues, but the G. grancliflora is thought by physicians to have been very 

 serviceable in pulmonary complaints. The French call these plants Galeope , 

 the Germans Taiibe nessel ; the Dutch Knoopige hundmetel. The latter term 

 this and several plants of the Dead-nettle kind Ortica moiia. 



4. Large-flowered Hemp-nettle {G. versicolor). — Stem bristly, 

 swollen below the joints ; leaves oblong, egg-shaped, pointed, bristly and 

 serrated ; calyx-teeth shorter than the tube ; corolla with the tube much 

 longer than the calyx, upper lip horizontal and inflated ; annual. This species 

 appears in a printed desci-iption to be very similar to the last, yet it is quite 



