LABIATAE (MINT FAMILY) 351 
Range: New Brunswick and Quebec to Minnesota, southward to 
Georgia and Kansas. 
Habitat: Roadsides, neglected farmyards, waste places. 
This herb was formerly much used as a tonic and home remedy 
for disordered nerves. It is still quoted in the drug market at 
three to eight cents a pound, the leaves and the flowering tops 
being the parts used, collected when in 
full flower. 
Stem one to three feet high, erect, 
rather stout, square, downy-hairy, and 
much branched. Leaves opposite, ovate 
or oblong heart-shaped, light green above, 
downy beneath, deeply scallop-toothed, 
with slender petioles. Flowers in termi- 
nal spikes one to four inches long, sub- 
tended by small, narrow bracts; corolla 
pale lilac or white, with pale purple 
dots, the tube dilated in the throat and 
the broad middle lobe of the lower lip 
finely scalloped ; the stamens ascending 
under the upper lip, the lower pair the 
shorter; calyx downy, five-toothed, per- 
sistent, containing the four nutlets, which 
are ovoid, slightly flattened, smooth, and 
brown. (Fig. 243.) 
Fic. 243.— Catnip or 
Catmint (Nepeta Cataria). 
Means of control Xd 
Cats are very fond of the plant and a few stalks grown for the 
family pet may be welcome; but patches of the weed about farm- 
yards make a slovenly appearance and should be grubbed out. 
Roadside and waste-land growth should be cut when beginning to 
bloom. 
GROUND IVY 
Népeta hederdcea, Trevisan 
Other English names: Field Balm, Gill-over-the-Ground, Gill-ale, 
Ale-hoof, Cat’s Foot. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 
