L A M I U M. 
Toeing fometimes fmooth, fometimes villofe. He even 
doubts whether this, theorvala, and laevigatum, be diftincl 
ijpecies. Native of German)', Silefia, Dauphine, and Italy. 
6. Lamium album, common white archangel, or dead 
nettle: leaves cordate, acuminate, ferrate, petioled 5 whorls 
twenty-flowered. Root perennial, white, jointed, creep¬ 
ing. Steins numerous, a foot high, upright, unbranched, 
(lender at bottom, hollow, (lightly hairy; fometimes almoft 
fmootli j in expofed fituations reddifh purple; the young 
(hoots weak and afcending. Leaves refembling thofe ot 
the great ftinging-nettle, unequally ferrate; the tips of the 
little teeth red, and turned inwards, fomewhat liirfute on 
both fides; the uppermoft frequently coloured; thofe 
about the root often (mail, round, and crenated. Floyvers 
in whorls, from ten to twenty together, yellowifh white, 
fometimes tinged with red. It is common in hedges, on 
banks, and by road-fides, and in corn-fields; flowering in 
April and May, when it is much reforted to by bees, for 
the honey fecreted into the bottom of the tube by the 
gljnd that furrounds the bafe of the germ. Hence it is 
called in fome counties bee-nettle, which is corrupted into 
bean nettle. It has alfo the name of dea-nettle, which is only 
a corruption of dead-nettle ; and that, as alfo blind-nettle , 
means a nettle without flings. This plant has a difagree- 
able fmell when bruifed. Linnaeus fays, the leaves are 
eaten in Sweden as a pot-herb in the fpring. No cattle, 
however, feem to touch it; and, having a Itrong creeping 
perennial root, it fliould be extirpated, which is not dif¬ 
ficult. The flowers have been celebrated in uterine fiuors, 
and alfo in diforders of the lungs. The bruifed leaves 
have been recommended to difeufs tumours. But it is 
difearded from modern practice. 
7. Lamium bifid urn, or bifid archangel : leaves cordate, 
acuminate; upper lip of the corolla bifid ; fegments diva¬ 
ricated. Stems a foot or eighteen inches high, procum¬ 
bent, tinged with red at bottom, and branched there ; 
branches oppolite, divaricating ; middle Item higher than 
the refl, about one-fourth of its height has a pair of leaves 
with two barren calyxes, at the top three or four whorls. 
Leaves petioled, crenate, the notches after the fourth or 
fifth more deeply cut, lengthened out at the end, but 
blunt, (lightly hirfute on the furface. Flowers in the up¬ 
per whorls two together, almoft an inch long, refembling 
thofe of the preceding in every thing except in the upper 
lip, which is divided into two revolute divaricate feg¬ 
ments ; the colour is white. The root-leaves are cordate, 
blunt, and petioled. It flowers in February and March, 
is an annual plant, and a native of Italy near Naples, fe- 
veral places on the coalt of Tufcany, and in the ifland of 
Elba. It may perhaps be a hybridous plant produced 
from the preceding and fucceeding fpecies. 
8. Lamium purpureum, or purple archangel: leaves 
cordate, blunt, petioled. Root annual, fibrous. Stems 
feveral, at bottom weak and branched, near the top al¬ 
moft naked, and frequently coloured, fix inches or more 
in height, hollow, and fomewhat rugged. Leaves veiny, 
flightly hairy or downy, but not rough ; the lower round- 
i<h-heart-(haped, notched, finaller, on longer petioles ; the 
upper ovate-heart-(haped, bluntly ferrate, on fiiort petioles, 
growing dole together, bent back and lying over each 
other, often of a reddilh colour, efpecially at the ends. 
Flowers growing thickly together on the tops of the ftalks 
in whorls, fix together in a double row : corolla red, the 
lower border of the throat whitifh with purple (leaks; 
bright red in open fituations, pale in the (hade, and fome¬ 
times white: edge of the throat on each fide furnillied 
with two teeth, the uppermoft pointed like a thorn, the 
lowermolt blunted with a fpot on it; the upper lip ovate, 
concave, flightly villofe, entire; the under two-lobed, 
fpreading a little, and fpotted. Seeds pale-brown, trian¬ 
gular, truncate, margined. This as well as the white 
dead-nettle is common in moll parts of Europe, in the 
fame fituations, and is a- common weed in gardens and 
other cultivated land ; flowering a great part of the year, 
from April to September, and in mild feafons both earlier 
Yol, XII. No. 8 j 5. 
109 
and later. Bees refort alfo to this for the honey-juice in 
the flowers ; according to Linnaeus, it is boiled in Up¬ 
land, a province of Sweden, as a pot-herS. The leaves 
and flowers have formerly been ufed in medicine, but are 
not regarded in the prefent practice. The leaves vary 
much in form, fize, and toothing. Hence feveral varie¬ 
ties, one or two of which are confidered by fome as dif- 
tinfl fpecies. 
9. Lamium diflectum, or cut-leaved archangel: leaves 
deeply ;yid irregularly cut; ftem-leaves decurrent. The 
leaves of this are deeply cut, fo as almoft to be lobed, and 
taper down into the foot-ftalks. Cultivated in a garden, 
it preferves its difference ; and it is found with the pre¬ 
ceding. It is annual ; and not unfrequent, according 
to Ray, in kitchen-gardens and fallow-fields. Mr. Curtis 
obferved it on a bank between Pimlico and Chelfea; and 
Mr. Robfon about Darlington. Monf. Villars feems to re¬ 
gard it as intermediate between purpureum and amplexicaule. 
Mr. Miller's fpecimens are in the Bankfian Herbarium. 
10. Lamium molle,orpellitory-leavedarchangel: leaves 
petioled, flightly toothed, lower cordate, upper ovate. 
This is eafily diftinguifhed by the leaves being almoft en¬ 
tire, neither ferrate nor crenate. The .flowers are white. 
Its native place is not known. It is perennial, and flowers 
in April and May. Cultivated in 168), by Mr. James 
Sutherland. 
11. Lamium amplexicaule, or perfoliate archangel : 
floral leaves feftile, embracing, blunt. Root annual, 
fibrous, whitifh. Stems feveral, nine inches or a foot high, 
nearly upright, fmooth, with a few oppofite branches. 
Flowers in whorls, to fifteen, perfect and imperfect; the 
latter ftiort, a little longer than the calyx, the tips very 
red, hairy, and clofed ; the former four times the length of 
the calyx, bright purple, generally breaking out from the 
top of the ftem. The imperfeft corollas are very hairy, 
of a bright red colour, and have the mouth clofed. The 
perfect flowers are like thofe of L. purpureuin, but much 
longer. The imperfeft flowers appear in February and 
March; the perfedt ones not till May or June: if the pro- 
grefs of the flowers be watched, it will be found that the co¬ 
rolla is gradually enlarged in different flowers, till, the wea¬ 
ther being fufflciently warm, they come forth fully formed. 
The imperfedt flowers are neither rudiments of the Iona- 
ones, nor are they barren, for they have both ftamens and 
piftil. Linnaeus informs us, that this plant fcarcely ever 
produces perfedt flowers in Sweden. Here then we have 
a procefs fomewhat fimilar to what is obferved in the vio¬ 
let, and fome other plants, in which perfedt feed is pro¬ 
duced, although the corolla be not perfedtly formed ; 
analogical to what happens in the animal kingdom, when, 
a caterpillar previous to its changing into the chryfalis 
(fate has been deprived of its proper quantity of food, the 
fly comes forth perfedt in all its parts except the wings, 
which are crumpled up and never expand. This plant 
is common in molt parts of Europe, in cultivated ground, 
on light foils, and on walls. The old name of it is great 
henbit. 
12. Lamium multifidum, or multifid archangel: leaves 
many-parted. Native of the Levant. 
13. Lamium molchatum, or mulky archangel: leaves 
cordate, blunt, fmooth; floral leaves fefiile; calyxes deeply 
g-aflied. Annual. Leaves marked with white, fomewhat 
like thofe of the autumnal cyclamen ; they are fmooth, 
and in dry weather have a mulky feent, hut in wet wea¬ 
ther are fetid. Stems eight or nine inches high. Flow¬ 
ers white, appearing in April : the feeds ripen in June. 
From Mr. Miller’s fpecimens in the Bankfian Herbarium, 
it feems to be a variety of Lamium album. The leaves 
are lefs acuminate, and the indentures are fewer and 
blunter. 
Propagation and Culture. Several of the fpecies are con¬ 
fidered as weeds rather than garden-plants. The white 
archangel propagates itfelf copiouily by the roots, and the 
purple by the feeds. Several which are here given as fpe¬ 
cies, (2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13,) are probably no more than va- 
F f neties. 
