Catnip is a very common, naturalized plant, growing about old buildings and fences, and on waste and cultivated lands, flowering from June to September. It is a native of Europe. The tops and leaves are medicinal; they have a strong, characteristic odor, not very grateful to many persons, and a peculiar, bitterish taste. Their virtues are imparted to boiling water by infusion. It is very much liked by cats, preventing, it is said, attacks of fits.
Catnip should be collected each year in June and July, when flowering, and the coarser stems and branches rejected. It deteriorates in value, hence the necessity of gathering it annually. A variety, Nepeta Cataria, Linné, var. citriodora, Becker, has the odor of lemon or balm.