512 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Nepeta. — Linn. 



Calyx dry, striated. Tube of the corolla longish ; intermediate lobe of the lower lip 

 crenate ; margin of the orifice reflected. Stamens approximate. 



A large genus, diffused throughout the world, but principally found in the 

 south of Europe, the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, Persia, and 

 India. They are herbaceous, with verticillately spiked flowers, rarely race- 

 mose, or cymose. One species only is employed. 



N. cataria, Linn. — Flowers spiked ; whorls slightly pedunculated ; leaves petiolate, 

 cordate, dentate, serrate. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 797 ; Torrey, Comp. 233 ; Flor. Med. ii. 105 ; Engl. Bot. 

 137 ; Lindley, Flor. Med. 492. 



Common Names. — Catnep ; Catmint. 



Foreign Names. — Cataire, Herbe aux chats, Fr. ; Erba gattaria, It. 



Catnep is a native of many parts of Europe, and is abundantly naturalized 

 in this country ; it grows in neglected, dry situations, flowering in June and 

 July. The whole plant is used ; it has a strong, peculiar, and even unpleasant 

 odour, and a bitter, somewhat aromatic taste. Like Valerian, it appears to be 

 extremely agreeable to cats, who delight in rolling on it, so as to develope the 

 odour, which is said to act on them as an aphrodisiac. Ray states, that when 

 this plant is raised from seed, instead of being transplanted, that these animals 

 will not touch it. 



Medical Properties. — It is much employed, in domestic practice, as a car- 

 minative, especially in colic of infants, in the form of infusion. It possesses 

 the usual properties of its class, and moreover, is endowed with marked anti- 

 spasmodic powers, a strong infusion oftentimes acting very efficaciously in 

 attacks of hysteria. Many European writers speak of it in high terms in 

 the treatment of chlorosis, and amenorrhea, and it is also said to operate as 

 a powerful vermifuge. It is now seldom employed in regular practice, but is 

 far more deserving of notice than many articles admitted into the officinal 

 lists. 



Several other species are employed medicinally, among which may be 

 mentioned the N. citriodora, which, according to Wiegmann, is a powerful 

 emmenagogue {Bull. Sci. Med. x. 171); the N. madagascariensis furnishes 

 tuberous roots, which are eaten in Madagascar; and the N. malabarica, the 

 leaves of which, according to Ainslie (Mat. Ind. ii. 295), are given in India 

 in stomachic complaints, and in the later stages of dysentery, and also in 

 intermittent fevers, and the expressed juice is prescribed for children in the 

 febrile condition attending teething ; and Rumphius (Amboin., v. c. 75) states, 

 that the juice mixed with oil of sesamum is much used by the Malays in 

 chronic coughs and asthma. 



Marrubium. — Linn. 



Calyx tubular, five to ten-nerved, equal, with five to ten bristly teeth. Corolla with the 

 upper lip erect, the lower spreading and trifid, the middle lobe broadest. Stamens four, 

 didynamous, included, anthers with divaricating, somewhat confluent lobes. Style with 

 short, obtuse lobes. 



A small genus, principally indigenous to the south of Europe, and countries 

 bordering on the Levant. The flowers are verticillate and sessile, with nu- 

 merous linear bracts. The leaves are generally whitish and rugosely-veined. 

 One species is officinal. 



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