THK YOUNG 



NATURA.LIST. 



47 



spoil, without any compensating advantage 

 to the plant, the tube is closed low down by 

 a projecting ring of hairs. Then obser\'e 

 the lower lip how it is flattened and broad- 

 ened out, forming an admirable threshold 

 or doorstep on which the bee may alight. 

 On each side there are two prominent pro- 

 tuberances to serve as footholds, and thus 

 furnish leverage to enable it to press against 

 the upper lip, shielded from injur>- by its 

 helmet-like hood, and just in the place and 

 position to strike the upper part of the bee's 

 body when it enters the tube of the corolla, 

 so that when mature they eannot fail to 

 dust with pollen the insect's body on a par- 

 ticular spot at each visit. The style, with 

 its forked stigma lies between them so as to 

 touch the same part of the insect's body. 

 But it does not arrive at maturity in any 

 individual flower until after the stamens 

 have shed their pollen and shrivelled out 

 of theway.thuscross-fertilisation is certainly 

 ensured. So common is this plant that any 

 one can easily obtain a fresh specimen, and 

 examine for himself its beautifully simple 

 yet elaborate and effective structure. The 

 generic name of Laviium is derived from the 

 Greek, and refers to the throat-Wke shape of 

 the corolla, and the specific name Album to 

 its white colour. The popular name of 

 Dead Nettle is an allusion to the nettlc-like 

 appearance of the leaves and general habit 

 of the plant, but it entirely lacks the acid, 

 poisonous, stinging properties of the com- 

 mon nettle. The White Archangel is 

 another name by which it is known in cer- 

 tain districts. There are several plants 

 being the appellation of Archangel, foremost 

 of these is Angelica, Archangeliea, which is 

 the Archangel, an umbelliferous plant some- 

 times grown in gardens, or cultivated for 

 its medicinal properties, but not found wild 

 this country. Then we have the White Arch- 

 angel Lamhim Album ; the Red L. purpureiim ; 

 the yellow, L. galeohdolon ; all labiate plants. 

 The origin of this popular name is obscure. 



The Archangel is found in flower on the 

 archangel Michael's day, May 8th, hence it 

 might be said to be under his care. Its 

 properties are said to have been revealed in 

 a vision. It is said to be a powerful pre- 

 ventitive of pestilential diseases ; a protec- 

 tive against witches and evil spirits ; and a 

 remedy for the disease in cattle known as 

 "elfshot" in the northern counties. But in 

 the case of the dead nettle it is surely a 

 misnomer. No medical properties are now 

 attributed to it, and it is not by any means 

 an attractive plant except to a botanist and 

 bees. Even the children pass it by in 

 gathering their nosegays, and they are the 

 most omnivorous of all animals. It has a 

 faint, dull, heavy odour, more disagreeable 

 when bruised, although nothing like so 

 fcetid as its near ally, the hedge woundwort 

 {Stachys sylvatica) which is simply intolerable. 

 Cattle uniformly reject it, although Linnaius 

 states that the young tender shoots are 

 used as vegetables in Sweden in the same way 

 as common nettles are with us. It is curious 

 that a hardy plant so abundant and generally 

 distributed in England, should be so scarce 

 in Scotland : in the northern counties it is 

 unknown, it is rare and local in the midlands, 

 and it is only in the extreme southern 

 counties, those bordering the banks of the 

 Tweed, that it is at all common. But its 

 place is taken by a close congener, Galeopsis 

 versicolor, a weed of cultivated fields, which 

 increases in frequency northwards. It has 

 similar flowers but even more showy and 

 attractive, being beautifully variegated with 

 white, yellow, and purple. It is abundantly 

 armed with long, slender, hardened hairs or 

 prickles, which, although deficient in the 

 virulent juice of the stinging nettle, often 

 causes great inconvenience to the workers 

 in the harvest field, because from their 

 extreme tenuity they break, and becoming 

 embedded in the flesh, defy extraction, hence 

 they are more dreaded than even the strong- 

 er armed thistle. 



