Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 295 



MOTHERWORT (Leonurus Cardiaca) (EURO- 

 PEAN) is a simple, erect-stemmed mint growing from 

 2 to 4 feet high. It has a very decorative effect, the 

 leaves being large at the base of the stem and rapidly 

 diminishing as they approach the top; the lower ones 

 are quite long-stemmed and all are palmately slashed. 

 The flowers grow in round clusters surounding the 

 stem at the axils of the leaves. 



The numerous flowers composing these clusters 

 have tiny, two-lipped, white, pink or purple corollas 

 and minute stamens. Both the stem and the leaves 

 have a woolly texture and the former are strongly 

 veined. Motherwort is commonly found about 

 old country dwellings and along roadsides. We find it 

 in bloom from June until August. It is a much more 

 leafy species than most of the mints; the pairs of 

 leaves are closely crowded together and extend in 

 all directions from the stem. 



WILD MINT (Mentha arvensis canadensis), a com- 

 mon species, is one of our few native mints. It has 

 a simple stem from 1 to 2 feet high and toothed, 

 petioled lance-shaped leaves. The tiny white or li- 

 lac-white flowers are clustered around the stem in 

 the axils of the opposite leaves. Both the stem and 

 the leaves are more or less hairy and have an aro- 

 matic odor resembling pennyroyal. Wild Mint is 

 common throughout the United States and southern 

 Canada. 



HEDGE NETTLE; WOUND-WORT (Stachyspalus- 

 tris) is a tall mint (1 to 3 feet) with a downy-bristly 

 stem and purple, tubular, two-lipped flowers in a ter- 

 minal spike and from the axils of the upper leaves; 

 lower lip streaked and spotted. Common in moist 

 ground from N. S. to Manitoba and southwards. 



PEPPERMINT (Mentha piperita) (EUROPEAN) 

 has ovate-pointed, finely toothed leaves, usually with 

 pairs of leaflets from the axils and little purplish 

 flowers in small terminal spikes. 



