356 LABI AT AE (MINT FAMILY) 



Means of control 



For small areas destruction of seedlings by hoe-cutting in autumn 

 or early spring ; in fields thorough cultivation followed by heavy 

 seeding with clover, which will crowd out the weed. 



MOTHERWORT 

 Leonurus Cardlaca, L. 



Other English names: Llon's-tail, Lion's-ear, Cowthwort. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to September. 



Seed-time: August to November. 



Range: Nova Scotia to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to 

 North Carolina. 



Habitat : About dwellings and in barnyards ; on roadsides ; a fre- 

 quent tenant of vacant city lots. 



One of the social, half-domesticated weeds, seldom found far 

 from men's habitations ; it is medicinally valuable, the dried leaves 

 and tops being worth three to five cents a 

 pound in the drug market. 



Stem two to five feet tall, rather stout, 

 square, with a few ascending branches. 

 Leaves dark green, thin, finely rough-hairy ; 

 the lower ones rounded, palmately lobed, 

 usually five-pointed, often three or four 

 inches broad ; higher up they become three- 

 lobed and near the top they are often lance- 

 shaped; all with slender petioles. Flowers 

 in crowded axillary whorls, pink, pale purple, 

 or white, the corolla with its curving upper 

 lip bearded outside, the lower one three- 

 lobed and purple-dotted ; stamens ascending 

 against the upper lip, the lower pair the 

 longer. Calyx hairy, with five awl-like 

 points which become hard and rigid ; each 

 contains four small, brown, three-angled nut- 

 lets with blunt or truncate apex tipped with 

 oca), x i fine, short, bristly hairs. (Fig. 247.) 



