the Briti Species of Mentha. 207 
this conje&ture are as follows. There is not to be found in the col- 
le&ions of Buddle or Sherard any fpecimen.of M. /ativa with marks: 
of its having been gathered by Tilleman Bobart at Shotover, or with 
any indication of its being the fappofed hairy variety of the M. ver- 
ticillata of the Synopfis. We learn thofe particulars only from Bo- 
— bart's herbarium. In thatcolle&tion is a paper of the tall Red Mint, 
my rubra, marked with feveral of the íynonyms I have adopted. 
With this is one loofe fpecimen of M. /ativa, and a note in Buddle's. 
writing, faying, “I want your brother Tilleman’s variety of this, 
birfutie foliorum diferepans." Hence I conclude M. /ativa to be that 
fuppofed variety, of which perhaps James Bobart had no duplicate 
to fend Buddle, and he might put his note to the fpecimen as a me~ 
morandum to procure him the plant at fome future opportunity,. 
which feems never to have happened, as it is not in Buddle’s her- 
barium at prefent. . Sh el err Mig 
It is certainly very wonderful that any botanift could confound: 
M. fativa with the plant now under confideration, even without | 
attending to the calyx and flower-ftalks, which in the rubra are 
- always. perfeétly fmooth, except a few hairs on the margin, rarely 
on the back, of the teeth of the calyx. ~The fmooth reddifh zigzag. 
ftem, with a very few fhort branches curved in various direétions,, 
rifingto the height of 5 or 6 feet when fupported. by buthes ; the deepe. 
green fhining nearly {mooth. leaves; the large handíome purple: 
flowers; readily diftinguifh the M. rubra from all.others, nor is it 
liable to the variations to which moft fpecies are fubject.. | 
ar - 
"— | T - IO, MENTHA 
