WOOD SAGE 89 



Galeobdolon, Dioscorides, is from the Greek gale, weasel, and bdolos, 

 fetid smell. 



The plant is called Yellow Archangel, Yellow Dead Nettle, Dunny 

 Nettle, Weasel Snout. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



260. Lamium Galeobdolon, Crantz. Stem erect, leaves ovate, 

 acuminate, serrate, petiolate, flowers yellow, lower lip of corolla trifid, 

 tube curved, fringed with hairs. 



Wood Sage (Teucrium Scorodonia, L.) 



This is a recent species, in the absence of ancient records, found in 

 the North Temperate Zone to-day, in Europe generally except in 

 Russia, and in N. Africa. In Great Britain it grows everywhere 

 except in Middlesex, and in the Shetlands, ranging as far north as the 

 Orkneys. It is found in Northumberland at a height of 1500 ft. It 

 grows in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



Wood Sage is a common woodland plant growing on slopes in 

 woods, copses, always in natural woodland, where the ground is stony. 

 It is found in the same districts growing more in the open under 

 hedges. It is also found on heaths and commons at lower elevations. 



The stem is erect, square, herbaceous, often consisting of more than 

 one, purplish, hairy. The leaves are heart-shaped, stalked, oblong, 

 scalloped, distant, paired, veined, and wrinkled. The whole plant has 

 a stiff or rigid habit. The leaves are mealy and glandular below. 



The flowers are borne in one-sided racemes, and are yellowish, 

 straw-coloured, turned to one side, one terminal longer than the other 

 racemes. The calyx is swollen below (the lip may be absent), egg- 

 shaped, erect, entire, 5-lobed. The lower lip has 4 teeth. The bracts 

 or leaflike organs are egg-shaped, and end in a long point. The tube 

 of the corolla is projecting, gaping, the upper lip deeply divided. The 

 lip is divided into 3 nearly to the base. The nutlets (4) are blackish, 

 shining, in the base of the calyx. 



Wood Sage is about 18 in. high at most. The flowers bloom 

 in July. The plant is perennial, propagated by cuttings. 



The flowers are proterandrous, the anthers maturing first. When 

 the flower expands the stigma is not touched by an insect visiting the 

 flower, as it lies behind the stamens, which are projecting, and lie close 

 to the upper wall of the tube, afterwards bending slightly upwards, and 

 the stigma takes their place. The lobes of the style are already 

 spreading. The anthers open inferiorly by a longitudinal slit and 



