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M A R R U B I U M vulgare.
White Horehound.
D ID T N A M I A Gymnojperm'ta.
Gest. Char. Calyx falver-fhaped, rigid, with io farrows.
Upper lip of the corolla cloven, linear,
ftraight.
Spec. Char. Teeth of the calyx ten, briftle-fhaped,
hooked.
Syn. Marrubium vulgare. Linn. Sp. PI. 816. Hudf.
FI. A n . 2,61. With. Bot. A r r . 617. ed. 3. v. 3. 533.
Relh. Cant. 232. Sibth. Ox. 187. 'Woodv. Med.
Bot. t. 97.
M. album. Rail Syn. 239.
F R E Q U E N T on watte ground among rubbith, particularly
in very dry lituations, where it flowers copioufly during the
latter part of fummer, even though frequently covered with the
dull of high-roads, and expofed to the molt burning fun. From
the laft it is protected, like a great many Cretan and African
plants, by a thick fine coat of woolly hoarinefs, enveloping all
the green parts of the herb. This kind of clothing feems intended
by Nature rather as a protection from heat than cold;
and yet it is difficult to account for its being found moll abundantly
on the under fides of fome leaves, while the upper, expofed
to the fun, are naked.
The root is perennial, and woody. Stems feveral, branching
from the bottom, and all together forming a round bufh ; in the
upper part they are Ample, fquare, bearing feveral pairs of
roundifh or ovate, wrinkled, unequally ferrated leaves, on fhort-
ifh footftalks. The flowers grow in thick axillary whorls. Calyx
with ten furrows, and as many briftly ftrong hooked teeth,
which attach themfelves to the coats of animals. Corolla white,
the lower lip in three fegments, the fide ones fmall and (harp,
the middle one large, inverfely heart-fhaped, and flightly notched.
This plant is aromatic and very bitter. The latter flavour
only remains in the extract, which was formerly a fcholaftic
medicine, and is now a popular one, for coughs' and afthmas.
Moft quack medicines are what orthodox practitioners have laid
afide, fometimes with reafon, fometimes from accident.
8 * A