WtifcDS OF THE MINT FAMILY 



121 



the calyx teeth of last year's flowers. A sure protection they give 

 the enclosed nutlets from seed-eating bird and inquisitive human, 

 until the old stem is ready to fall to earth. Then the nutlets are 

 loosened and soon up from them new plants spring, the old winter 

 one having been to them a literal ''mother- wort." Remedies: cul- 

 tivation ; repeated cutting with hoe or spud and salting. 



80. LAM HTM AMPT.EXICAULE L. Ilenbit. Dead-nettle. (A. I. 2.) 



Steins slender, weak, branched from 

 base, somewhat spreading, (5-18 inches long; 

 lower leaves rounded, scalloped, slender- 

 stalked, upper ones sessile, clasping. Flowers 

 few, in axillary and terminal clusters; calyx 

 teeth long, erect, not spiny-tipped; corolla 

 purplish, small, slender, tubular, upper lip 

 bearded, lower one si>otted. Nutlets gray with 

 whitish markings, curved, 3-sided, 1/20 inch 

 long. (Fig. 84.) 



Frequent in southern Indiana, less so 

 northward. Occurs around dwellings in 

 lawns and gardens and along roadsides 

 and borders of fields. March-Oct. In 

 most places a winter annual, forming its 

 root-leaves in late autumn, flowering and 

 ripening its seeds in early spring. Rem- 

 edies: in lawns, deep cutting or hand 

 pulling; in fields, thorough cultivation; 



Fig. 84. (After Atkinson.) 



crowding out with clover or other Avinter growing crop. 



87. STACHYS PALUSTRIS L. Common Hedge Nettle. 



Stem erect, slender, rough-hairy, 

 somewhat branched, 1-4 feet high, the 

 angles with stiff down-pointed hairs; 

 leaves firm, lanceolate or oblong, sessile 

 or short-stalked, toothed, pointed. 

 Flower clusters in an interrupted spike, 

 (5-10 flowers in a whorl ; corolla tube 

 not longer than calyx, purplish or pale 

 red, purple-spotted, the upper lil> pubes- 

 cent ; stamens as in mothenvort. Nut- 

 lets egg-shaped, rounded above. (Fig. 

 85.) 



Abundant in moist soil along 

 ditches and streams and in marshes. 

 June-Sept. The rough hedge nettle 

 or wound wort (S. aspcra Michx.) 

 occurs in similar places and differs 



Rough-weed. (P. N. 2.) 



85. 



Single flower above; stamen below. 

 (After Britton and Brown.) 



