GLECHO'MA.* Cal. five-cleft: Anthers converging, each pair forming a cross; (upper lip cloven. E.) G. HEDERA CEA. Leaves kidney-shaped, crenate. (E. Bot. 853. E.)-Ludw. 68-Vaill. 6. 5 and 6-Curst. 143-Woodv. 28Fl. Dan. 789-Riv. Mon. 67.2, H. minor-Lonic. i. 205. 2-Matt. 626Dod. 394-Lob. Obs. 336. 2, and Ic. i. 613. 2-Ger. Em. 856. 1-Park. 677. h.-Walc.-J. B. ii. 855. 2-Ger. 705-Fuchs. 876-Blackw. 225Trag. 799. Stamens occasionally imperfect, consisting of filaments only half the usual length, terminated by a reddish blunt point; sometimes they are furnished with anthers, pale brown, containing no pollen, and scarcely broader than the filaments. St. Roots sending out trailing sucklers. Leaves heart-kidney or heart-shaped, beset underneath with hollow dots, in which are glands secreting an essential oil; and above with little eminences, but which do not secrete any odoriferous oil, for this surface being rubbed gives out no peculiar scent, whereas the under surface affords a pleasant reviving fragrance. Blossom blue; sometimes, though rarely flesh-colour. (Plant varying much in luxuriance. E.) Unusually upright and more hairy, in Riv. Mon. 67. 1, Hedera terrestris—Vaill. 6. 5—Clus. ii. 38. 2—Ger. Em. GILL. GROUND IVY. ALE-HOOF, or TUN-HOOF: (the terminal being (From 7huxu, sweet wine; as affording a pleasant beverage. E.) + The leaves thrown into the rat with are, clarify it and give it a flavour. (It was generally used for this purpose till the reign of Henry the Eighth, about which period hops were substituted. E.) Ale thus prepared is often drank as an anti-scorbutic. An infusion of the leaves is commonly taken as tea, and proves slightly tonic, expectorant, and aperient. The expressed juice, mixed with a little wine, and applied morning and evening, destroys the white specks upon horses' eyes. The plants that grow near it do not flourish. -It is said to be hurtful to horses if they eat much of it. Sheep eat it; horses are not fond of it; cows, goats, and swine refuse it. Little protuberances, composed of many cells, are sometimes found upon the leaves, and are occasioned by insects, (especially gallgnats, Cecidomyia. Latr. Tipule. Linn. E.) Phalana lihatrix and Cynips Glechome live upon it. Lion. (Anthidium manicatum may occasionally be detected in the act of collecting the fomentum from this and other plants furnished with short woolly hair or down, for the purposes of nidification. Curt. pl. 61. E.) (Various are the conjectures respecting the derivation of this name. Ambrosinus indi cates the most direct etymology from Aaruos, the throat, alluding to the shape of the flower: from which word also that of Lamia itself, as the appellation of a certain voracious beast or fish, or of a sorceress supposed to devour children, evidently originated. E.) L. ALBUM. Leaves heart-shaped, accuminate, serrated, hairy, on leaf-stalks flowers about twenty in a whorl. (E. Bot. 768. E.)-Ludw. 162-Curt. 115-Kniph. 3-Riv. Mon. 62. 1Fl. Dan. 594-Blackw. 33-Walc. Trag. 8. 1—Ger. 566-Matth. 1129– Dod. 153. 1-Lob. 280. 2, and Ic. i. 520. 2-Ger. Em. 702. 1—Park. 605, 3. (Stems upright. Leaves slightly hairy. E.) Flowers white, sometimes, though rarely, with a pinky tinge; twelve to twenty in a whorl. Anthers hairy black. WHITE ARCHANGEL. WHITE DEAD-NETTLE. (Irish: Neantog Maruh. Gaelic Teanga-mhinn. E.) On rubbish, in corn-fields, and on ditch P. May-June. banks. L. PURPURE'UM. Leaves heart-shaped, blunt, unequally crenate, on leafstalks: (upper ones crowded; tube of the blossom bearded within near the base. E.) (E. Bot. 769, and bloss. 1933. E.)-Curt.-Sheldr. 69-Fl. Dan. 523Blackw. 182. 1-Kniph. 3-Riv. Mon. 62. 2, Galeopsis minor-Ger. 568. 4-Walc.-Dod. 153. 2-Lob. Obs. 280. 1, and Ic. i. 120. 1-Ger. Em. 703. 3-Park. 605. 1, and 587. 11-H. Ox. xi. 11. 9. (Stems smooth, branched at the bottom, naked about the middle, thickly set with leaves at the top. E.) Flowers six in the bosom of each leaf, in a double row. Calyx awned, fringed. Lyons. Leaves serrated, downy, but not rough; the ends often purplish, and pointing downwards. Blos som, lower border of the mouth whitish with purple streaks; the rest pale red, sometimes nearly white. (A variety is recorded with leaves entire at the margins. E.) RED DEAD-NETTLE OF ARCHANGEL. DEE-NETTLE. (Welsh: Marddanadlen gôch; Danadlen farw góch. E.) Rubbish, corn-fields, and kitchen gardens. A. April-Sept.† L. (INCI'SUM. E.) Leaves deeply and irregularly cut: stem-leaves extending down the leaf-stalks: (interior of the blossom naked at the base. E.) (E. Bot. 1933. E.)-Pet. 33. 3-Pluk. 41. 3. (Resembling the last in habit. E.) Leaves deeply cut, almost lobed, tapering down into leaf-stalks. Mr. Robson introduced it into his garden, where it shed its seeds, and propagated itself three or four times, and all the plants have been of the same kind. It flowers and ripens its seeds, and these seeds produce others twice in the summer. Both this and the preceding are common about Darlington, often growing together; we may therefore conclude that the difference is not owing to soil and situation. *(The different species of Lamium, especially the White Archangel, are particularly acceptable to bees, and ought to be encouraged in the precincts of the apiary. E.) (Even this humble weed is not without its antagonist in the animal creation; for the chaffinch (Fringilla cælebs) deflorates entire whorls of its early crimson blossoms while feeding on the seeds, though in an unripe state. The family of Primula, and probably other spring flowers, suffer in like manner. E.) (CUT-LEAVED ARCHANGEL. Welsh: Marddanadlen gôch a dail gwahanedig. E.) L. rubrum minus, foliis profunde incisis. Ray Syn. 240. L. purpureum B. Huds. Relh. With. Ed. ii. (Fl. Brit. L. incisum. Willd. Sm. Hook. Grev. L. dissectum. With. Ed. 3 and 4. Hull. Sym. E.) Kitchen gardens and fallow fields, not unfrequent. On a bank between Pimlico and Chelsea. Curtis. (In corn-fields, near Bungay, frequent. Mr. Woodward. In great plenty at Hunnington, Suffolk; also in a field of tares at Pakenham. Rev. C. R. Leathes. In waste places about Darlington. Mr. Robson. Bowden churchyard, near Altrincham, Cheshire. Mr. H. Christy. In Anglesey. Welsh Bot. Fields near Newhaven. Grev. Edin. E.) A. April-Sept.* L. AMPLEXICAU'LE. (Floral-leaves sessile, embracing the stem, blunt, kidney-shaped, crenate, partly lobed: teeth of the calyx linearawl-shaped, as long as its tube. Sm. E.) (E. Bot. 770. E.)-Curt. 109-Kniph. 11-Riv. Mon. 63. 1 and 2-Fl. Dan. 752-Lob. Ic. i. 463. 2-Ger. Em. 616. 4-Park. 762. 2-Pet. 33. 4 —H. Ox. xi. 11. 12-Ger. 493. 4. Lower-leaves on leaf-stalks, heart-shaped, blunt, deeply and bluntly serrated, the upper in opposite pairs, heart-shaped broad, sessile, inclosing but not embracing the stem, with five lobes; lobes scolloped, the middle one as broad again, and with three clefts at the end, the lateral ones small. Woodw. (Calyx thickly set with hairs: Bloss. fine crimson, with a long slender tube: but the early flowers rarely expand or protrude beyond the calyx, yet perfect their seeds. E.) GREAT HENBIT. HENBIT ARCHANGEL or DEAD-NETTLE. (Welsh: Marddanadlen gôch cylchddail. E.) Pollichia, amplexicaulis. Gmel. Sandy corn-fields, and cultivated ground. A. Feb.-June. (L. maculatum. Under this designation we have to consider the plant figured and described in E. Bot. 2550; "Leaves heart-shaped, pointed, deeply serrated; whorls ten-flowered:" and also another variety: both having recently been admitted into the British Flora. The former of these, originally discovered by Lady Vaughan, beside the lane leading directly from Redland Court to the garden, (close to the garden wall,) and shown by her ladyship in that station, (the only one known in these Islands,) to the Editor several years ago, has since been brought under constant observation. We have the best authority for believing this plant to be L. maculatum of Linnæus, though it would appear from his general description that the species so named was intended to comprehend both our varieties. It is likewise undoubtedly the Lamium which prevails in the south of Europe, to the exclusion of L. album, with which it must be allowed to stand in intimate alliance. "The whole of the plant accords much with L. album:" and again, "habit like that of L. album:" says Smith: and, (with the exception of the purple flowers, and fewer of them in a whorl,)" in other respects very like L. album.” Hooker. Ludwig Ect. t. 162, except in colour, well represents our plant. Rivinus describes it, but without distinguishing it, as a species, from L. album. It may likewise be recognized in the description of Schkuhr. The young leaves both of this and the preceding species may be eaten with other potherbs. Goats, sheep, and horses eat it; cows refuse it. (Phalana chrysilis feeds on these plants. E.) It should be kept in mind that the tendency of L. album to become tinged with red, is admitted by Smith: that also in Fl. Lond. that species is stated to occur with a purple flower in the south of France: that Curtis reports having found it tinged in England: and that Linnæus himself confirms the same remark, "Variat flore carneo." On the other hand, Schkuhr informs us that the flowers of L. maculatum, usually purple, are "sometimes pale red, or nearly white ;" and moreover, "on the plants that bear flowers, the spotted leaves are often wanting." The discrepancies between our numerous specimens and the proposed specific character, have rendered us in no small degree sceptical as to the possibility of establishing any such permanent distinction. The number of flowers in a whorl is far from being definite, though in general, it must be allowed, fewer than those of L. album. The lip of the blossom being spotted or speckled, is by no means peculiar to this kind of Lamium. Neither is the trivial name unexceptionable, if understood to refer to the spots on the leaves; for the foliage of this plant, described as "guttatim dispersa," in Column. Ecphr. 191, is never, so far as we have observed, such as to justify the expression in E. Bot. "distinguished by large white spots on the radical leaves:" inasmuch as these marks are variable both as to duration, strength, and position, indeed equally pervading all parts of the plant, and at other seasons than those mentioned in the context; nor with us can it correctly be said “ Macula foliorum alba æstate disparet." Linn. In fact, on close inspection of these spots, they have always appeared to us to be occasioned, not by those less intelligible operations of nature on which depend the proper varieties of plants, but rather by some more immediate agency, and accompanied by the destruction, or abrasion, of the cuticular membrane and parenchymatous substance of the parts affected, as indicating a state of disease, or the depredations of minute Aphides, which may be found, though not so frequently, committing similar ravages on L. album, and others of this tribe. Curious specimens, as we apprehend also thus produced, have just been communicated to us, as L. maculatum, with leaves more or less freckled, or speckled, from Compton wood, near Bristol. But we are restrained from further digression, by a conviction that, however the Redland plant may be ultimately disposed of, it has little or no pretension to be deemed indigenous, limited as it is to the one very suspicious spot already described. The other, and somewhat more legitimate, variety, to which we have alluded, is still more remarkable, almost every leaf being embellished throughout the year, not with "obscure scattered spots," but with a well-defined white central line, as though streaked with white paint: "Foliis area longitudinali alba.” Linn. L. alba linea notatum.” Bauh. Pin. 231. This we believe to be L. maculatum of Flora Græca, wherein it is mentioned in contradistinction to the Redland plant. We have received it from the Chelsea Botanic Garden. It is said to have been brought thither from Edinburgh by Mr. G. Don. We are informed that it prevails in the kingdom of Leon with a white var. It is cultivated in the Scotch gardens, whence likewise we have it; but whether Dr. Hooker in Fl. Scot. intended to apply the description from E. Bot. solely to a variety similar to the one growing at Redland, (which elicited that description,) or to include our latter variety, it is to be regretted that the researches of the learned Professor should have failed to produce a single "local habitation," more satisfactory than that of "Woods in Scotland, rare." On the authority of Professor Henslow we are enabled to state that even this var. does not retain its distinctive character, and that the seedlings lose their stripes. For a complete elucidation of these obscure points, we await the publication of M. Gingin of Bern, who has been long engaged in preparing a Monograph of this family of plants, and to whom we have submitted specimens. E.) GALEOP'SIS.* Bloss. upper lip vaulted, somewhat scolloped; lower lip trifid, with a concave pointed tooth on each side. G. LA'DANUM. (Stem not swollen below the joints: leaves spearshaped, more or less serrate, hairy: upper lip of the blossom slightly crenate. E.) (E. Bot. 884. E.)—Kniph. 12-Riv. Mon. 24. 1-Pet. 33. 11. Stem a foot high, upright, quadrangular, somewhat hairy, with spreading branches. Leaves opposite, on leaf-stalks, sometimes spear-shaped, serrated, at others very entire, taper-pointed, naked, or somewhat hairy, with three or four serratures on each edge. Flowers red, slightly woolly. Blossom helmet toothed; lips scolloped, the middlemost segment red and white. Calyx teeth taper-pointed, or thorny. Huds. (The Rev. R. Forby has found the terminal flower sometimes regularly quadrifid as in G. Tetrahit, and in Norfolk a variety with narrower and almost entire leaves most frequent. E. Bot. E.) RED HEMP-NETTLE. E.) Corn-fields in calcareous soil, frequent. Var. 2. Calyx remarkably woolly; stems thickening upwards. In a corn-field two miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon, near a limestone quarry. (On limestone hills at Fulwell, near Sunderland. Winch Guide. At the foot of Scoot Scar, near Kendal, and Giggleswick Scar, near Settle. Mr. Gough. E.) A. Sept. (G. VILLO'SA. Stem not swollen below the joints: leaves egg-spearshaped, serrated, soft and downy: upper lip of the blossom deeply notched. E.) Dicks. H. S.-(E. Bot. 2353—Riv. Mon. 24. 2. E.)-Pet. 33. 10. Stem upright, quadrangular, of equal thickness between each joint; branching, woolly. Leaves woolly, or silky, on leaf-stalks, opposite; those near the root egg-shaped, those of the stem spear-shaped, taper-pointed, with straight veins. Calyx teeth thorny. In habit it agrees with G. Ladanum, but differs in breadth, serratures, veins and soft hairs of the leaves, and in the colour of the blossoms. Huds. The hairs on the calyxes in this species are straight and glandular, but in the preceding white, and curled like wool or cotton. (Blossom four times as long as the calyx, of a pale sulphur colour, the palate deep yellow. E. Bot. E.) (From yan, a cat; and ois, a countenance; from an imaginary resemblance of the blossom to the feline physiognomy. E.) |