HEDGE NETTLE (Stachys palustris), a plant of the mint family (Labiatae), called also marsh-wound wort, marsh-betony and clown's-heal, widely distributed in Europe, Asia and North America. It is an erect, slender, sometimes slightly branched, rather stiffly hairy perennial, 1 ft. to 4 ft. high, with lance-shaped, more or less sharply toothed leaves and purplish flowers, about in. long, borne usually in elongated clusters at the end of the stem but sometimes also in the upper axils of the leaves. This plant is typically representative of the botanical genus Stachys, embracing some zoo species, found (except in Australia) widely throughout the world; four others, including the wound-wort (S. Betonica), occur in Great Britain, and some 20 others are native to the United States and Canada.
(Prunella modularis), a small, brown backed European bird somewhat smaller than the house sparrow. It is a common resident and partial migrant in Great Britain and in most parts of Europe. The hedge-sparrow, or dunnock, which has nothing in common with the house sparrow but the name, has a short, musical, high-pitched song, constantly repeated. The cuckoo often chooses the hedge-sparrow as foster-mother for its young, as recorded by Shakespeare in King Lear. Like many small English birds, the hedge-sparrow has been successfully introduced into New Zealand.