52 LABIATA. 
Hitherto only two labiates have shown any signs of becoming pests. 
Salvia verbenacea, L. The Wild Sage. <A native of Europe and 
Asia. This is a useless perennial, which appears to be spreading in parts, 
especially on rather poor, dry soil in exposed situations, though it can 
also enjoy moisture. The plants need to be rooted up, piled, and burnt, 
before seeding has taken place. It does not thrive on cultivated land, and 
4s quite useless as a fodder plant. 
Marrubium vulgare, L. The Common Horehound. A_ native of 
Europe, Asia, and Africa. This is a tall perennial herb with rather thick, 
woolly stems, one to two feet high, wrinkled, rounded, stalked leaves and 
dense clusters of dirty white flowers among the upper leaves, the calyx 
hairy, and with ten small hooked teeth, which aid in the dispersal of the 
ripe fruits by passing animals. It has a bitter taste, is useless for fodder 
or grazing, but is not poisonous. The plant has a pleasant, somewhat musk- 
like smell, and an extract (Marrubin) is occasionally used for chronic 
catarrh, &c. It is not worth cultivation, and though a weed in all countries 
where it grows was included by Mueller in the Select Plants. ‘‘Its natural- 
ization can nowhere be unwelcome, as it does not unduly spread, as it has 
important medicinal properties, and as the flowers through much of the 
season afford to bees nectar for a pale, excellent honev.’’ ‘The plant has, 
however, spread to such an extent in the Warrnambool district that, at the 
request of the shire authorities, it was proclaimed a weed under the Thistle 
Act for that district in 1905. Cutting helps to keep it down in pasture 
land, but to thoroughly clean badly affected land it must, if possible, be 
brought under the plough and subjected to fallowing, followed by root 
crops. 
Proclaimed for the Shires of Maldon (1908) and Warrnambool. 
Mentha Pulegium, L. The Pennyroyal Mint. <A native of Europe, 
Asia, and Africa. It is a small perennial, quite without value as a fodder 
plant, and apt to overrun moist ground. Cultivation easily keeps it under, 
and on pastures, drainage and liming have the same effect, as in general 
the plants thrive where water is abundant and nitrification is at a low 
ebb. ‘ 
Stachys arvensis, L., the Field Stachys, and Lamium amplexicaule, 
L., the Henbit Dead Nettle, are two small annuals introduced from 
Europe, which have spread to some extent, but are not in any way serious. 
Both are small plants, the latter more especially being branched and de- 
cumbent at the base. Both have purplish flowers, the corolla in the former 
barely projecting beyond the rather long calyx teeth, but in the latter 
the calyx teeth are shorter and the corolla longer. Stacijs is very com- 
monly accused of being poisonous, but on entirely false evidence. 
No member of the genus Stachys, or of the natural order to which it 
belongs, is known to be definitely’ poisonous, although the order includes 
no less than three thousand species, and the genus over two hundred. A 
widespread superstition exists that this plant, so common in Europe and 
England, where it has been regarded from time immemorial as harmless, 
is responsible in Australia for causing the disease known as ‘‘ staggers,’? 
and various poisoning symptoms. The explanation is that snme ignorant 
person corrupted the name Svachys weed into Stagger weed, and thence 
by association of ideas the plant was held responsible for the disease. So 
deeply impressed is this superstition that we find a competent botanist 
accepting the poisonous character of Stachys arvensis as definitely estab- 
lished. . 
