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N E P E T A Cataria.
Nep, or Cat-mint.
D ID T N A M I A Gymnofpermia.
Gen. Char. Cor. with the middle fegment of its
lower lip crenate : orifice with a reflexed margin.
Stamina approaching each other.
Spec. Char. Flowers fpiked ; the whorls flightly pedunculated.
Leaves on foot-ftalks, heart-fhaped,
dentato-ferrated.
Sy n . Nepeta Cataria. Linn. Sp. PL 796. HudJ. FI.
An. 249. With. Bat. Arr. 593. Relb. Cant. 221.
N, rruÿor vulgaris,. Rati Syn. 237.
F o u n d about hedges and road-fides, in a chalky or gravelly
foil, in various parts of England, though feldom very
plentifully. It is not unfrequent throughout Norfolk and
Suffolk, flowering about the latter part of fummer, and thriving
well though covered with duff, like Ballota nigra.
The root is perennial, long, and thready, of a blackifh colour
externally. Stems feveral, two or three feet high, fquare,
clothed with heart-fhaped petiolated leaves, which are grofsly,
and more or lefs acutely, ferrated. Every part, except the
corolla, is invefted with a foft, fhort, velvet-like downinefs.
The calyx is marked with ftrong green prominent ribs. That
reprefented at the bottom of our plate is accidentally reverfed,
the fhorter teeth being (in nature) the lowermoft. The corolla
is white or purplifh, its lower lip elegantly fprinkled with crim-
fon or purple dots. Its crenated central lobe marks the genus
decidedly.
Every part of this herb exhales, when bruifed, a pungent
aromatic fmell, fomewhat like penny-royal, with which it is
fuppofed to agree in virtues. Cats delight in this feent almoft
as much as in the powdered root of Valeriana officinalis.
Wherever they meet with the Nepeta, they entirely deftroy it,
by chewing the young branches, and rolling themfelves upon
the plant as long as any fmell is left.