Mentha 



Labiatae 



825 



5 53 



Map 1790 



Mentha rotund ifol ia L. 



Miles 

 5(5 



Map 1791 



Mentha arvensis L. 



Mentha arvensis 

 var sativa Benth 



from Kosciusko County. No doubt it will persist in Lake County and can 

 safely be admitted to our flora. 



Nat. of Eu. ; Maine to Ark., southw. to Fla. and Tex. 



5. Mentha arvensis L. Field Mint. Map 1791. This species is found 

 throughout the state although it is more frequent in the northern part. 

 It is very variable and I am regarding it as a species complex. I am re- 

 ferring to it all of my specimens which I had formerly named Mentha 

 arvensis, Mentha arvensis var. canadensis, and Mentha arvensis var. 

 glabrata. I have only 72 sheets from which to make a study and I find 

 that this number of specimens together with the meager amount of litera- 

 ture available are not sufficient to justify a satisfactory conclusion. I find 

 that Victorin in his "Flore Laurentienne" treats the plants of his area as 

 one species and calls them Mentha canadensis. The plants, as a whole, 

 differ widely from each other, and large and widely spreading plants dif- 

 fer greatly in the parts of the same plant. Bentham, in his monograph 

 of Labiatae, described seven varieties, one of which I am recognizing 

 because it has one character which seems to be constant. Doubtless the 

 plants of America are different from those of Europe and Asia and it 

 may have been wiser to have followed other authors in calling our plant 

 Mentha arvensis var. canadensis or Mentha canadensis as Victorin did. 

 Without convincing proof I prefer to be conservative and use the old 

 name and await the report of a monographic study of the genus. All Indi- 

 ana forms are shown on one map. 



Newf. to B. C, southw. to Pa., N. Mex., and Calif. ; Eurasia. 



5a. Mentha arvensis var. sativa Benth. Map 1792. I have only two 

 sheets of this variety. One is from Decatur County and one is from Whit- 

 ley County. The upper parts of the stems and branches of these specimens 

 are pubescent all over; the leaves are of an ovate type, strongly rounded 

 or subcordate at the base; the calyx lobes are very sharp and 1-2 mm 

 long; and the corollas pubescent without. 



Distribution not known. 



