Nepeta
(an old Latin name used by Pliny, and probably derived from the town of Nepi, in Italy). Catmint. Including Glechoma. SYNS. Cataria, Saussuria. ORD. Labiatae. A large genus (about 120 species) of hardy herbaceous plants, sometimes tall and erect, sometimes diffuse, perennial or annual, low or dwarf, broadly dispersed over the extra-tropical regions of the Northern hemisphere; a few extend between the tropics, and one species has been introduced to North America or South Africa. Corolla often blue or white, rarely yellow; tube slender at base, included or exserted; whorls often many-flowered, but varying. Leaves toothed or incised. The few species which are worth growing are of the easiest culture, in any ordinary light sandy soil. Propagated by division of the plants, or by sowing seeds, in spring. All the species here described are perennials.
N. Glechoma (Glechoma). Ground Ivy. fl. blue, in axillary whorls of about six. April. l. reniform, crenate, stalked. Stems procumbent, frequently several feet long, creeping. Europe (Britain). A handsome plant, but too common to be of horticultural value. SYN. Glechoma hederacea. (Sy. En. B. 1055.) There is a form with variegated leaves.
N. Kokamirica (Kokamyran). fl. blue, in dense terminal spikes; lower lip of corolla reniform, emarginate. l. small, opposite, ovate-elliptic, crenately toothed. Kokamyr, 1879. (R. G. 1030.) N. Mussini (Mussin's). fl. pale blue, verticillate; corolla tube longer than calyx, filiform, curved; throat compressed, funnel-shaped; upper lip divided almost to the base; lower lip large, crenate, hollow, spotted with white towards the throat; anthers purple, bilobed. May. l. cordate, oblong-oval, crenate, rugose, hoary beneath; lower ones on rather long petioles, upper ones sub-sessile. Stem divided at the base; branches long, weak, generally undivided, square, with obtuse angles. Caucasus. (B. M. 923.) N. spicata (spike-flowered). fl. in terminal, sessile, or peduncled spikes, 2in. to 4in. long; corolla purple, with the lower lip nearly white. September. l. 1in. to 4in. long, broadly ovate-cordate, deeply serrate or toothed. h. 6in. to 12in. Western Himalayas, 1878. (B. M. 6405.)