174 | Dr. SM rru's facium: on ` E. 
** Mentha incana foetida, — | | 
* Mentbafirum valde ramofum flore violaceo tubro. At Dartford i in 
Kent.” | 
At is moft pesbable that all thefe are halt to fpecies we are ac- 
diteimted with ; but the above characters are too flight. to determine 
them by, neither would I venture to decide upon them without 
feeing fpecimens. It is not my purpofe to guefs at botanical enig- 
mas, but to- inveftigate. truth by the light | of ant and authentic in= 
- formation. - 
-The firt tdition of. Ray's s , Syrapfis (t. pals o over eris earlier cata- 
logues) contains 8. real Mints including 1 Pule legium, i all from that ex- 
cellent writer's own knowledge, and about which there is no kind 
of iade They will be quoted in proper order hereafter. 
. In the 2d edition three more are added, but with lefs accuracy. 
ars to me a or doubt 
founded, for in this inftance Ray trufted to other iii : 
Before Dillenius publifhed the 3d edition of Ray' s Synop/is, botany 
was very affiduoufly and fcientifically cultivated in England. The 
genus of Mentha particularly engaged the attention of Buddle the - 
gren. Dales and two Bobarts. . Thefe induftrious botanifts colleéted 
Tuk every sh they. P: nd, w vith esis upon the anean and 
characters of each, and their conjectures about the fynonyms of au- 
thors.. Their original fpecimens, preferved in the Britifh Mufeum, 
the Sherardian ‘Herbarium at Oxford, or in my own collection, elu- 
cidated by. ample manufcript remarks, have been my guides in the 
4tudy of this genus, which. cannot. be decyphered. with t them, — 
| Em whole were fubmitted to Dillenius, who made what ufe he 
chofe 
