176 Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 



from the short character in his Prodromus. Our specimen has been 

 kept in the greenhouse. 



Mentha verticillata. 



M. verticillata ; spicis terminalibus, cylindricis, crassis, floribus densis- 



sime congestis ; filamentis exsertis, pilis articulatis medio cinctis ; 



caule ramoso ascendenti, basi repente ; foliis verticillatis, superne 



quaternis, elliptico-linearibus, serratis. 

 Mentha verticillata, Dori^ Flor. Nepal, p. 114 " Roxb. Hort. Bengal. 



p. 44. 

 " Mentha veronicoefolia, Hamilton, MS. 

 " Nepeta bracteata, ibid." fid. Don. 



Mentha? pumila, nob. Edin. New Phil. Journ. for April 1828. 

 Description — Annual. Stem caespitose, ascending, rooting at the joints 

 where it lies upon the ground, much branched, G-8 inches high, striated, 

 translucent, obscurely angled, the cells of the circumference large, empty, 

 pale green, and equal in length to the joints, their walls being com- 

 posed of a single row of small four-sided cells ; those in the centre much 

 smaller, succulent, surrounded by a purple membrane, to the angles of 

 which the roots, branches and leaves may be easily traced, and on the 

 inside of which there is a fasciculus of spiral vessels. Branches simple. 

 Leaves (IJ inch long) gradually smaller upwards, very numerous, vertl- 

 celled, 4 in the whorls towards the top of the stem, often 5 or 6 below, 

 (10, according to Don,) oblongo-linear, sparingly and distantly serrated 

 in the upper half, rarely more than two serratures on each side, spread- 

 ing, veinless, flat, slightly channelled above, keeled below, and having 

 minute dots on both sides. Inflorescence a terminal, dense, whorled, cy- 

 lindrical spike (on the leading shoot f ths of an inch long, on the others 

 shorter), much thicker than the top of the stem. Bractece one at the 

 base of , each flower, ovato-lanceolate, hairy and strongly ciliated, con- 

 cave, connivent at the point^s, and as long as the calyx. Calyx ovate, 

 inflated, 4>cleft, segments equal, connivent, pointed, hairy. Corolla 

 4-toothed. slightly spreading, hairy on the outside, twice the length of 

 the calyx, nearly regular, purple, and varying with the internal mem- 

 brane of the stem m the depth of its shade, lower segments slightly 

 emarginate. Stamens 4, exserted ; anthers like rounded, clavate termi- 

 nations to the filaments, pale, unilocular, bursting in a line across their 

 extremities, and becoming brown ; pollen subglobular, white ; filaments 

 pink, straight, distant, having in their middle a whorl of hairs, appear- 

 ing under the microscope like strings of round beads. Style filiform, as 

 long as the stamens, cleft at the top ; segments revolute. Stigmata ca- 

 pitate. Germen 4-lobed. 

 In a former number of this Journal, I described some very imperfect speci- 

 mens of this species which flowered in December 1827, under the name 

 of Mentha ? pumila. More attention having been paid to its cultivation 

 this season, it flowered in the stove two months earlier, and has attained 

 a much greater size, confirming the suspicion formerly expressed by my 

 acute friend Dr Hooker, that it might be the M. verticillata of Don's 

 Flora Nepalensis. I can rest this on the authority of Mr Don himself, 

 who compared a specimen which I sent to him with some gathered by 

 Dr Hamilton. He writes that they " precisely agree." The plant, 

 however, appears to vary exceedingly ; for Dr Hamilton, to whom I 

 also sent a specimen, informs me that " they have very little general 

 resemblance" to the native specimens of M. verticillata in his possession, 

 these being much larger, and having spikes as long as the whole of my 

 plant. Still, however, he has " some doubt of their being different," 

 and ascribes the smaller size of our plant to their having been raised in 

 pots set in a flat of water, but not submersed, while in its native situa- 

 tion it grows " in rice fields, or by the sides of ditches or ponds, with 

 the lower part of the stems under water." 

 The greater i)art of our specimens have damped off, and I do not expect 

 that any will live to produce seed. 



