THE HENBIT. .;,: 



Lamium amplexicaule. Nat. Ord., 

 Lablatce. 



E find in Britain some three 

 or four species of Lamium. It 

 is necessary to put matters in 

 this somewhat vague way, for 

 some botanists recognise as spe- 

 cies what others are content to 

 deem mere varieties. Thus one 

 botanist, after describing our 

 species, adds, " very difficult to 

 be distinguished by characters 

 either from the last or the next 

 species, and perhaps the three 

 might be judiciously combined." 

 Those, however, of which there 

 can be no doubt are the Is. 

 album or white dead-nettle, the 

 L. purjjitreum or red dead-nettle, 

 and the present species. To these may be added the yellow 

 dead-nettle or weasel-snout, classed by some botanists in a 

 genus of its own, Galeobdolon, on account of certain modifi- 

 cations of structure, but retained by others in the same genus 

 with the rest we have named. All these, with the exception 

 of the Henbit, are often popularly called archangels, and 



our series includes illustrations of all four of them. While 

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