356 LABIATAE (MINT FAMILY) 
Means of control 
For small areas destruction of seedlings by hoe-cutting in autumn 
or early spring; in fields thorough cultivation followed by heavy 
seeding with clover, which will crowd out the weed. 
MOTHERWORT 
Leonurus Cardtaca, L. 
Other English names: Lion’s-tail, Lion’s-ear, Cowthwort. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: August to November. 
Range: Nova Scotia to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to 
North Carolina. 
Habitat: About dwellings and in barnyards; on roadsides; a fre- 
quent tenant of vacant city lots. 
One of the social, half-domesticated weeds, seldom found far 
from men’s habitations ; it is medicinally valuable, the dried leaves 
and tops being worth three to five cents a 
pound in the drug market. 
Stem two to five feet tatl, rather stout, 
square, with a few ascending branches. 
Leaves dark green, thin, finely rough-hairy ; 
the lower ones rounded, palmately lobed, 
usually five-pointed, often three or four 
-inches broad; higher up they become three- 
lobed and near the top they are often lance- 
shaped ; all with slender petioles. Flowers 
in crowded axillary whorls, pink, pale purple, 
or white, the corolla with its curving upper 
lip bearded outside, the lower one three- 
lobed and purple-dotted ; stamens ascending 
against the upper lip, the lower pair the 
longer. Calyx hairy, with five awl-like 
points which become hard and rigid; each 
contains four small, brown, three-angled nut- 
lets with blunt or truncate apex tipped with 
Fia, 247. —~ Mother- 
wort (Leonurus Cardi- 
aca). XX} fine, short, bristly hairs. (Fig. 247.) 
