B24 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
or smooth; leaves shortly petioled or sessile, oblong-ovate or lanceolate, serrate; 
Howers in axillary capitate whorls; bracts acute, shorter than the flowers; calyx 
hairy, teeth triangular or lanceolate; corolla hairy without and within, subequally 
4-lobed; stamens 4; stigma bifid, style branches short. 
Cultivated in Guam, often grown in pots. It is used for making mint juleps. 
REFERENCES: 
Mentha arvensis 1. Sp. Pl. 2: 577, 1753. 
Menthaceae. MINT FAMILY. 
This family is represented in Guam by the genera Coleus, Mentha, Mesosphaerum, 
and Ocimum. The author of the name Menthaceae, which is here published for 
the first time, is Prof. Lester F. Ward, who has presented the following statement 
regarding it: 
Permit me to propose the name Menthaceae for the mint family as the most suit- 
able substitute for the name Labiatae, given it by Bernard Jussieu in Hort. Trianon, 
1759, and used by most botanists since that date, but which has not the proper ter- 
mination and is not formed from the name of any genus of the family. Being based 
on Mentha, the most typical genus of the family, it has better claims, except in the 
matter of priority, than Lamiaceae (Lindley, 1836), Nepetaceae (Horaninow, 1843), 
or Salviaceae (Drude, [879).”’ 
Mesosphaerum capitatum. 
Family Menthaceae. 
LocaL NAMeES.—Batunes(Gauam); Marrubio-boton (Porto Rico); San Diego cim- 
arron (Cuba). 
A stout glabrescent weed growing to a height of 1.5 to 2 meters; leaves petioled, 
ovate-oblong, pointed, unequally and coarsely serrate; floral leaves oblong-linear, at 
length reflexed, shorter than the head; flowers sessile, capitate; heads globose, axil- 
lary, shorter than their peduncles; calyx equally 5-toothed, teeth awl-shaped, 
bristle-tipped, erect at length one-third as long as the tube; corolla 2-lipped, inferior 
’ fr 
lobe deflexed; stamens 4, deflexed; leaves 5 to 15 em. long, peduncles 2.5 to 5 em. 
long; heads in fruit 20 to 25 mm, in diameter; nutlets devoid of a concave margin. 
A weed of American origin, widely spread through the Tropics. 
REFERENCES: 
Mesosphaertun capitatin (Jacq.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen, 2: 525, 1891, 
Hyptis capitata Jacq. Coll. 1: 102. 1786. 
Mesosphaerum pectinatum. 
LocaL NAMEs.—Alhucema (Cuba). 
Slender, wand-like, puberulous or glabrescent; leaves petioled, ovate, unequally 
crenate-serrate (or serrate), hoary-pubescent beneath or glabrescent; floral leaves 
bristle-like; flowers in one-sided, contracted, short, arched, recurved cymes; cymes 
racemose or paniculate; calyx shortly pedicellate, 10-striate, subequal; tube shortly 
campanulate, densely villous at the truncate throat; teeth bristle-like, shorter than 
the tube, suberect. 
A tropical weed; collected in Guam by Lesson and Gaudichaud. 
REFERENCES: 
Mesosphacruim pectinatum (1) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 2: 525, 1801. 
Nepeta pectinata L, Syst. ed. 10, 1099, 1759. 
Hyptis pectinata Poit. Ann, Mus. Par, 7: 474. £30. 1806, 
Mexican creeper. See Antigonon leptopus. 
Mexican tea. See Chenopodium ambrosioides. 
Mignonette tree (British West Indies). See Lawsonia inermis. 
Mil-leguas ((iuam, Philippines). See Telosima odoratissuna. 
Milkweed, Curacao. See Asclepias curassavica. 
