718 N E I J 
of that animal. Linnceus thought that the name ori¬ 
ginated from a town in Italy, between Rome and Viterbo.] 
Catmint ; in botany, a genus of the clafs didynamia, 
order gymnofpermia, natural order of verticillatas, (ia- 
biatse, Jnfi’) Generic characters—Calyx: perianthium 
one-leafed, tubular, cylindric; mouth five-toothed, acute, 
ereCt; upper tootlilets longer; lower more fpreading. 
Corolla: one-petalled, ringent; tube cylindric, curved 
inwards; border gaping; opening fpreading, cordate, 
ending in two reflex blunt very Ihort fegments ; upper 
lip ereCt, roundifli, emarginate; lower roundifli, concave, 
larger, entire, crenulate. Stamina : filaments four, avvl- 
fhaped, beneath the upperlip, approximating, two of them 
Ihorter; antheras incumbent. Piftillum: germen four- 
cleft; ftyle filiform, length and fituation of the ftamens ; 
ftigma bifid, acute. Pericarpium : none; calyx ftraight, 
containing the feeds in its bofom. Seeds : four, fubovate. 
If the fegments of the throat be numbered with the lower 
lip, it will be three-parted .—Ejj'ential Character. Corolla; 
lower lip with an intermediate fegment, crenate; throat 
reflex at the edge ; llamina approximating. There are 
twenty-nine fpecies. 
i. Nepeta cataria, or common catmint: flowers in 
fpikes; whorls fubpedicelled; leaves petioled, cordate, 
tooth-ferrate. Common nep, or catmint, has a perennial 
root, from which arife many branching ftalks, two feet 
high and more, upright, pubefcent. Leaves of a velvet¬ 
like foftnefs, wrinkled, afh-coloured, and hoary, particu¬ 
larly underneath. Spikes compofed of interrupted whorls 
terminate the item, and come out in branches from the 
axils of the leaves. The flowers are fubfeflile, and fepa- 
rated at the bafe by a fmall lanceolate braCte; calyx downy, 
with green ribs ; corolla white, with a tinge of red, and 
fpotted with purple; tube nearly ftraight; middle feg¬ 
ment of the lower lip with fix or feven (fometimes more) 
equal teeth turned upwards, and fet with a tuft of white 
briftles at the bafe; ftamens rather longer than the upper 
lip. Seeds ovate, three-fided, blunt at both ends, crowned 
with a white ftreak, dark brown and fmooth when ripe. 
The whole plant has a ftrong fcent, between mint and 
pennyroyal. It is called catmuit, becaufe cats are very 
fond of it, efpecially wdien it is withered, when they will 
roll themfelves on it, tear it to pieces, and chew it with 
great pleafure. Ray obferves, that plants which he tranf- 
planted from the fields into his garden were always de- 
ftroyed by the cats, unlefs he protected them with thorns 
till they had taken good root and came into flower ; blit 
that they never meddled with plants raifed from feed. 
Hence the old faying; 
If you fet it, 
The cats will eat it; 
If you fow it. 
The cats don’t know it. 
Mr. Miller has confirmed this by his own experience; 
having frequently fet a plant from another part of the 
garden, within two feet of others which came up from 
feeds, when the former was torn in pieces and deftroyed 
by the cats, whilft the latter remained unhurt. The true 
reafon of this difference is aftigned by Ray ; that the cat 
is fond of it in a languid withering ftate, or when the pe¬ 
culiar fcent of the plant is excited by being handled or 
bruifed in gathering or tranfplanting. Common catmint 
is a native of molt parts of Europe, on banks and hedges, 
chiefly in a calcareous foil. It flowers from July to Sep¬ 
tember. In German it is called nepte hatzennepte, &c. in 
Dutch, hatteliruid, or nept; in Dariifh, hattevrt, or fij'en- 
brandt; in Swedifh, hattmynta ; in French, chataire , ca- 
taire, and herbe aux chats; in Italian, g-attaria; in Spanifli, 
patera ; in Portuguefe, neveda das galos ; in Ruffian, Itqf- 
chitza mehta. An infufion of catmint is deemed a fpecific 
in chlorotic cafes : two ounces of the exprefled juice may 
be given for a dofe. Sheep are faid to eat it, but all other 
domeftic quadrupeds to refufe it, Sheep might have been 
included in the number. 
ETA. 
( 3 . N. minor. The ftmaller catmint, which Miller ma kes 
a diftinCt fpecies, grows naturally in Italy and the So uth 
of France. The ftalks are more (lender, and their jo ints 
farther afunder; the leaves are narrower, and the whole 
plant whiter; the fpikes of flowers are divided into wh oris, 
the lower two inches apart, others an inch, and the u pper 
ones half an inch. 
2. Nepeta anguftifolia, or narrow-leaved catmint : co¬ 
rymbs pedicelled, fpiked ; leaves lanceolate, wrinkled, 
tomentofe, bluntly ferrate. Stem ereCt, a foot high, 
branched ; the whole plant tomentofe-hoary. Leaves pe¬ 
tioled, bluntifh, half an inch long. It.is by no means a 
variety of N. cataria, nor does it change its appearance 
when cultivated in a garden. The leaves are (harp at the 
bafe, all blunt at the tip; the calyxes are acute; whereas 
the leaves of N. cataria are fubcordate at the bafe ; and 
the upper ones, as alfo the teeth of the calyx, are cufpi- 
date. Native of Arragon in Spain. 
Miller has a fpecies under the fame name, the ftalks of 
which do not branch fo much as the common fort; they 
are flenderer, and the joints farther afunder ; the leaves 
are fmall, narrow, and almoft heart-fhaped, ferrate, hoary, 
and on fhort footftalks. It grows naturally in Italy. 
He has another fpecies which he calls N. paniculata, 
which grows naturally in Sicily, and rifes with a ftrong 
ftalk near three feet high ; the lower joints are four or 
five inches afunder. Leaves long, narrow, heart-fhaped, 
deeply ferrate, fitting pretty clofe to the ftalk. Flowers 
in panicles, of a pale purplifh colour. 
3. Nepeta crifpa, or curled catmint: flowers in w’horls, 
forming an interrupted fpike; leaves (talked, heart-fhaped, 
toothed, rugofe, hoary. All we know of this fpecies is 
from Willdenow, who fays that it is extremely beautiful. 
Stem more than a foot high, branched, afcending. Leaves 
oppofite, on longifh ftalks, fcarcely an inch long, obtufe, 
unequally toothed, undulated, and curled or crifped. 
Flowers compofing a terminal interrupted cluttered 
whorled fpike, of a blue colour, few in a whorl. 
4. Nepeta heliotropifolia, or turnfole-leaved catmint 5 
flowers about five in a tuft, on ftalks. Leaves ovate-ob¬ 
long, entire, rather downy. Native of the Eaft. Stem 
rather more than a foot in height, very much branched 
and forked. Leaves whitifh-green. 
5. Nepeta pannonica, or Hungarian catmint: cymes- 
peduncled, many-flowered ; leaves lanceolate-oblong, 
cordate, naked; lateral lobes of the corolla reflex. Root 
perennial, branched, woody, the fize of a quill, or more, 
brown on the outfide, knobbed at the end. Stems feveral, 
from three to four feet in height, grooved, fmoothifh, 
with oppofite branches forming a panicle. Leaves ob¬ 
long, blunt, fcarcely cordate, bluntly ferrate, fmooth, 
the lower ones on longer petioles, the upper ones on very 
fhort ones; they are lucceffively fmaller as they approach 
the racemes, till they become fo fmall, that the ends of 
the racemes feem to be leaflefs. Racemes axillary and 
oppofite, containing about twenty flowers y corolla more 
or lefs red, in the cultivated plant very deep, and ele¬ 
gantly dotted ; upper lip blunt, ereCt and bifid, with ob¬ 
long flat fegments ; lower lip hairy on both lides, with 
blue dots at the throat. It is fo nearly allied to N. nuda, 
as fcarcely to be diftinguifhed when they are not in flower. 
The branches are not fo rod-like in the nuda; the co¬ 
rollas in that are almoft white, without fpots : but the 
principal difference is in the lower lip, the middle fegment 
of which in the nuda is flat, with the fides reverfed, but 
in this remarkably concave and bagging. Native of Hun-t 
gary, Auftria, and Siberia. Cultivated in 1683, by Mr. 
James Sutherland. It flowers from Auguft to OCtober. 
6. Nepeta caerulea, or blue-flowered catmint: cymes 
peduncled, many-flowered, rough-haii'tfd ; leaves oblong, 
cordate, villofe, fubfeflile ; lateral lobes of the corolla re¬ 
flex. Introduced in 1777, by Cafimir Gomez Ortega, M.D. 
We do not know of what country it is a native. It 
flowers in May and June. 
7. Nepeta violacea, or violet-coloured catmint: cymes- 
peduncled. 
