3-38 LABIATE. (MINT FAMILY.) 



29. STACHYS, L. Hedge-Nettle. 



Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, 5- 10-nerved, equally 5-toothed, or the upper teeth 

 united to form an upper lip. Corolla not dilated at the throat ; the upper lip 

 erect or rather spreading, often arched, entire or nearly so ; the lower usually 

 longer and spreading, 3-lobed, with the middle lobe largest and nearly entire. 

 Stamens 4, ascending under the upper lip (often reflexed on the throat after 

 flowering) : anthers approximate in pairs. Nutlets obtuse, not truncate. — 

 Whorls 2 - many-flowered, approximate in a terminal raceme or spike (whence 

 the name, from ard^vs, a spike). Flowering in summer. 

 * Root annual : stems decumbent, low. 



1. S. arvexsis, L. (Woundwort.) Hairy; leaves petioled, ovate, obtuse, 

 crenate, heart-shaped at the base ; axillary whorls 4 - 6-flowered, distant ; corolla 

 (purplish) scarcely longer than the soon declined unarmed calyx. — Waste 

 places, E. Massachusetts : scarce. (Adv. from Eu.) 



* * Root perennial : stem erect. 



2. S. pallistriS, L. Stem 4-angled (2° -3° high), leafy, hirsute with 

 spreading or reflexed hairs, especially on the angles ; leaves sessile, or the lower 

 short-petioled, oblong- or ovate-lanceolate, crenately serrate, rounded or heart- 

 shaped at the base, downy or hairy-pubescent, obtusish (2' -4' long), the upper 

 floral ones shorter than the nearly sessile calyx ; whorls 6 - 10-flowered, the up- 

 per crowded into an interrupted spike ; calyx hispid ; the lance-subulate teeth 

 somewhat spiny, half the length of the purple corolla, diverging in fruit. — Wet 

 banks of streams, &c., mostly northward. (Eu.) — To this, for the present, we 

 must refer all the following as varieties, different as some of them are : — 



Var. aspera. (S. aspera, Michx.) Stem more commonly smooth on the 

 sides, the angles beset with stiff reflexed bristles ; leaves hairy or smoothish, 

 pointed, the lower petioled, the lower floral as long as the flowers ; spike often 

 slender and more interrupted ; calyx-tube rather narrower and the teeth more 

 awl-shaped and spiny. — Common in wet grounds. — This passes into 



Var. glabra. (S. glabra, Riddell, suppl. cat. Ohio pi. 1836.) More slender, 

 smooth and glabrous throughout, or with few bristly hairs ; leaves oblong- or ovate- 

 lanceolate, taper-pointed, more sharply toothed, mostly rounded or truncate at 

 the base, all petioled. — W. New York to Michigan and southwestward. 



Var. cordata. (S. cordata, Riddell, I. c. S. Nuttallii, Shuttlew.) Stem 

 beset with spreading or reflexed bristly hairs ; leaves hairy or smoothish, oblong, 

 hi artshnpi d at the narrowed base, all more or less petioled ; calyx-teeth sometimes 

 shorter. — Common westward and southward. 



3. S. hyssopifblia, Michx. Smooth and glabrous, or nearly so ; stems 

 slender (1° high), the angles sometimes reflexed-bristly ; leaves linear-oblong, or 

 narrowly linear, sessile, obscurely toothed towards the apex ; whorls 4 - 6-flowered, 

 rather distant ; corolla (light purple) twice or thrice the length of the triangular- 

 awl-shaped spreading calyx-teeth. — Wet sandy places, Massachusetts to Vir- 

 ginia; also Michigan, Illinois and southward. 



Betonica officinalis, the Wood Betony of Europe, — of a genua hardly 

 distinct from Stachys, — was found by C. J. Sprague in a thicket at Newton, 

 Massachusetts. 



