YELLOW ARCHANGEL 87 



The blunt-shaped nutlets fall free around the parent plant when 

 ripe. 



Wood Betony is a humus-loving plant requiring a humus soil, and 

 grows only on heaths or in woods where this is to be obtained. 



Peronospora lamii and Puccinia betonicce attack Wood Betony. 



Two moths, Coleophora wocksella, Idcea strigellaria, feed on it. 



Stachys, Dioscorides, is Greek for spike or ear, and the second 

 name (Latin) refers to its use in medicine. 



This plant is called Betayne, Betony, Wood Betony, Bidney, 

 Bishopswort, Wild Hop, Vetoyn. 



According to superstition it averted witchcraft. It was reputed to 

 have great medicinal properties, and there was an old saw which 

 recommended a person to "sell his coat and buy betony ". It was 

 used to cure consumption and lung disease. It has the power of 

 causing intoxication, and when freshly dried the leaves cause sneezing. 

 The roots are bitter and nauseous, cause vomiting and purging. 



Dye of a fine dark yellow colour for wool has been obtained from 

 Betony. The leaves have a bitter taste. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



256. Stachys officinalis, Trev. Stem erect, leaves radical, ovate- 

 cordate, below crenate, petiolate, upper lanceolate-acute, subsessile, 

 flowers purple, in a terminal dense spike, calyx subglabrous. The 

 nuts are blunt. 



Yellow Archangel (Lamium Galeobdolon, Crantz) 



As with the other Dead Nettles there is no trace of this plant in 

 ancient deposits. It is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe 

 and West Siberia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, 

 Channel, Thames, Anglia, Severn provinces, and in S. Wales generally 

 except Radnor and Cardigan. In N. Wales it is found generally 

 except in Montgomery and Anglesea; throughout the Trent province 

 except in S. Lines; in the Mersey and Humber provinces, and in 

 Cumberland. In Scotland it grows in Ayr and Westerness. It is 

 local in the E. of Ireland. 



Yellow Archangel is common in damp woods under hedges, espe- 

 cially those that overshadow ditches either by the roadside or in open 

 fields. But it is most abundant under the trees in shady woods, copses, 

 or plantations. 



The stem is simple (or there may be several), erect, slender, square, 

 smooth, with long lance-shaped leaves, coarsely toothed, veined, with 



