nettles (see page 103). In the absence of flowers the difference may be quickly seen by cutting the stems across, when Urtica will exhibit a round solid section, whilst Lamium is square and tubular. The flowers, like those of Bugle (page 21) and Meadow- Sage (p. 23) are labiate, and are produced in whorls. The calyx is tubular, with five teeth. The corolla tubular, with dilated throat, whence the name from Laimos (Gr.), throat. The British species are five:—
I. Red Dead Nettle (Lamium purpurenum). Leaves heart-shaped, with rounded teeth, stalked. Bases of flower-bracts not overlapping. Corolla purplish-red. Whole plant often purple. Hedge-banks and waste places. April to October.
II. Intermediate Dead Nettle (L. intermedium). Intermediate between the first and the next species, but more robust. Bracts overlapping. Teeth much longer than calyx-tube, spreading. Cultivated ground, not in S. of England. June to September.
III. Henbit Dead Nettle (L. amplexicaule). Calyx more hairy than in I. and II.; teeth equal to tube in length, converging when in fruit. Corolla slender, deep rose-colour, often deformed. Bracts broad, overlapping. Waste places. April to August. Above three species are annuals, the remainder perennials.
IV. White Dead Nettle (L. album). Corolla large, creamy white, upper lip vaulted. Calyx teeth long. Waste places. March to December.
V. Yellow Archangel (L. galeobdolon). Corolla yellow, the lower lip orange, spotted with brown. Hedges and woods. May and June.
Ground Ivy (Nepeta glechoma) and
Ivy-leaved Toad-flax (Linaria cymbalaria).
Trailing among the grass of the copse and hedgebank the Ground Ivy is one of the earliest of flowers to appear in spring. It has not the remotest relationship to the real ivy (Hedera helix), but, like the Dead Nettle, is a labiate plant. The slender square stem creeps along, and wherever it puts forth a pair of leaves it sends down a tuft of fibrous roots also. The leaves are roundish, kidney-shaped, deeply round-toothed on the margin. The flowers are borne in the axils of leaf-like bracts. The corolla-tube is long, slender at base, afterwards dilating. Some of the purple-blue flowers are large and perfect, others small and devoid of stamens. March to June. There is a closely allied, but rare, species called the Catmint (N. cataria)
