209 



N. Ord. LABIATE. 

 Tribe Nepetece. 



Genus Nepeta,* Linn. B. & H., Gen., h, p. 1199. Species 120, 

 chiefly found in the extra-tropical regions of the old world. 



209. Nepeta Cataria,f Linn., Sp. Plant., cd. l, p. 570 (1753). 



Catmint. Catnep. 



Syn. Gataria vulgaris, Moench. 



Figures. Hayne, iv, t. 8 ; Syme, E. Bot., viii, t. 1054; Reichenb., Ic. 

 Fl. Germ., xviii, 1. 1242. 



Description. A perennial herb with a thick rootstock and 

 erect, stout, stiff, quadrangular, finely but densely pubescent 

 stems, 2 or 3 feet high, with spreading branches. Leaves 

 opposite, on longish stalks, ovate or oblong-ovate, with a cordate 

 base and acute apex, 1 3 inches long, strongly and deeply 

 dentate- serrate, pubescent on both sides, densely so and grey 

 beneath. Flowers numerous, very shortly stalked, arranged in 

 dense paniculate cymes, the lower stalked, the upper sessile, 

 aggregated at the ends of the stem and branches into short, 

 broad, blunt, rounded spikes, bractlets setaceous, and, with the 

 pedicels &c., grey-pubescent. Calyx tubular, ovate-oblong, 

 somewhat gibbous below, with 15 ribs, densely pubescent, oblique 

 at the mouth, divided into 5 triangular subulate teeth, the upper- 

 most one the longest. Corolla with a rather short, curved tube, 

 dilated above, pubescent externally, smooth within, upper lip small, 

 rounded, notched, lower lip 3-lobed, the two lateral lobes small, 

 the middle large, dilated, concave, rounded, truncate, the edge 

 dentate, whitish or pale pink, dotted with lilac, buds pale orange. 

 Stamens 4, under the upper lip, scarcely exserted, upper pair 

 longest, anther-cells divaricate and continuous, purple. Achenes 

 rather large, dark brown, granular. 



* Nepeta, the classical name for the plant. 



f Cataria, a mediaeval herbarists' name, from the fondness of cats for this 

 species. 



