thickly covered with hairs, which 
PLANTS FURNISHING MEDICINAL LEAVES AND HERBS. 23 
HOREHOUND. 
Marrubium vulgare L. 
Pharmacopeial name.—Marrubium. 
Other common names.—Houndsbene, marvel, marrube. 
Habitat and range.—Horehound grows in dry sandy or stony soil in waste places, 
along roadsides and near dwellings, in fields, and pastures. It is found from Maine to 
South Carolina, Texas, and westward 
to California and Oregon. It is very 
abundant in pastures in Oregon and 
California, and especially in southern 
California, where it is a very trouble- 
some weed, covering vast areas and 
in such dense masses as to crowd out 
all other vegetation. It has been 
naturalized from Europe. 
Description.—The entire plant is 
give it a whitish, woolly appearance. 
It is a bushy, branching herb, having 
a pleasant aromatic odor, and is about 
1 to 3 feet high, with many woolly 
stems rounded below and four angled 
above, with opposite, oval or round- 
ish, wrinkled, strongly veined, and 
very hoary leaves. The leaves are 
about 1 to 2 inches in length, placed 
opposite each other on the stem, oval 
or nearly round, somewhat blunt at 
the apex, and narrowed or somewhat 
heart shaped at the base, the margins 
round toothed; the upper surface 
is wrinkled and somewhat hairy, 
while the lower surface is very hoary 
and prominently veined. The lip- 
shaped flowers, which appear from 
June to September, show that it isa 
member of the mint family (Mentha- 
cee). Mhese are borne in dense Fig. 15.—Horehound (Marrubium vulgare), leaves, 
flowers, and seed clusters. 
woolly clusters in the axils of the 
leaves and are whitish, two lipped, the upper lip two lobed, the lower three lobed. 
The hooked calyx teeth of the mature flower heads cling to the wool of sheep, resulting 
in the scattering of the seeds. (Fig. 15.) 
Collection, prices, and uses.—The leaves and tops are the parts used in medicine and 
are official in the United States Pharmacopeia. These are gathered just before the 
plant is in flower, the coarse stalks being rejected. They should be carefully dried in 
the shade. The odor is pleasant, rather aromatic, but diminishes in drying. The 
taste is bitter and persistent. Horehound at present brings about 14 to 2 centsa pound. 
It is well known as a domestic remedy for colds and is also used in dyspepsia and for 
expelling worms. 
219. 
