350 



LABIATAE (MINT FAMILY) 



to distribute the seed. In this way many of the mountain pas- 

 tures of the Pacific Coast have been so overrun with this weed as 

 to crowd out all other growth. The taste is biting and persistently 

 bitter, and no animal will eat the herb. 



The plant is used in medicine as a cough remedy and more 

 than a quarter-million pounds of the dried herb are annually im- 

 ported from Europe. The parts used 

 are the leaves and the flowering tops, 

 collected just before the buds open 

 and quickly dried in the shade. The 

 price is two or three cents a pound. 



Stem one to two feet high, stout, 

 erect, square, white-woolly, branching 

 and bushy. Leaves opposite, broadly 

 oval or rounded, with scalloped edges, 

 wrinkled and rough-hairy above, white- 

 woolly below, with large veins and 

 short, stout petioles. Flowers nearly 

 white, in dense axillary whorls, the 

 upper lip of the small, tubular corolla 

 notched, the lower one three-lobed and 

 spreading ; stamens included ; calyx 

 white-woolly, with ten awl-like, re- 

 curved teeth, the alternate ones shorter. 

 Nutlets ovoid and smooth. (Fig. 

 242.) 



FIG. 242. Common Hore- 

 hound (Marrubium vulgar e) . 



xi. 



Means of control 



Frequent and close cutting before seed development ; or, if the 

 colonies are not too large, removal by hoe-cutting. If the ground 

 is fit for cultivated crops, the necessary tillage promptly destroys 

 the weed. 



CATNIP OR CATMINT 

 Nepeta Catdria, L. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to September. 

 Seed-time: July to November. 



