THE GEOUND-IYY. 



Ncpeta Glechoma. Nat. Ord., Laliatcc. 



O abundantly is the ground-ivy 

 distributed that though it is by no 

 means a conspicuous plant, it is 

 almost certain sooner or later to 

 attract the attention while the eye 

 is scanning the hedge-row. The 

 plant is a perennial, and grows so 

 freely that a large area is quickly 

 u covered with a carpet of its leaves. 

 The stems are procumbent, a 

 j botanical term applied to such as 

 are feeble in nature, and trail 

 throughout the greater portion of 

 their length along the ground, and 

 root fibres are freely given off at intervals 

 along their lower portion, hence, like the straw- 

 berry or banyan tree, this power of re-rooting itself 

 enables it to spread and retain possession of the ground 

 covered at a long distance from the parent root. From 

 these running stems the upright flowering stems are given 

 off ; these flowering stems rarely attain beyond eight 

 inches in height, though at times, when the plant is 

 struggling for existence amidst tall grass or other herbage, 



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