358 LABIATAE (MINT FAMILY) 
stamens ascending against it, the lower lip three-lobed and spread- 
ing. Seeds small, ovoid nutlets. (Fig. 248.) 
Means of control 
Drainage of the ground; prevention of seed development by 
close cutting early in the season. Cultivation of the soil at once 
destroys the perennial roots. 
AMERICAN PENNYROYAL 
Hedeoma pulegioides, Pers. 
Other English names: Mock Pennyroyal, Squaw Mint, Stinking 
Balm, Mosquito Plant, Tickweed. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: Cape Breton Island to Ontario and Minnesota, southward 
to Florida and Nebraska... 
Habitat: Thin meadows, upland pastures, and in open woods about 
old stumps. 
The oil distilled from this herb is much used in making the 
“mosquito dopes” which hunters and fishermen and many other 
persons are obliged to use in localities where 
mosquitoes are a plague; the plant is also used 
medicinally and the leaves and flowering tops, 
collected in full bloom and dried, are worth one 
to three cents a pound. In taste and odor the 
plant is very like the true Pennyroyal, which 
is European. 
Stem erect, square, very slender, softly 
hairy, much branched, six inches to a foot in 
height. Leaves a half-inch to an inch long, 
thin, oblong-ovate, sparingly toothed, obtuse at 
apex, and narrowed to short petioles. Flowers 
in small axillary clusters, on short, hairy 
Fra. 249. — Ameri- peduncles; calyx hairy, the three upper teeth 
can Pennyroyal (He- triangular, the two lower ones awl-shaped ; 
deoma pulegioides). rage ; 
x}. corolla lavender or pinkish, about a quarter-inch 
