72 DIDYNAMIA— GYMNOSPERMIA. Mentha. 



Root woody, somewhat creeping. Stem ascending, 1-^ foot high, 

 leafy, roughish with minute prickles or bristles. Leaves also 

 Toughish, not downy ; variously jagged, or pinnatifid, tapering 

 at the base into short broad/oo^s^a//cs. Spikes several, opposite 

 and terminal, stalked, slender, acute, much lengthened out after 

 flowering, and all together composing a sort of panicle. Fl. 

 small, blueish, inodorous. Seeds obtuse, dotted with minute hol- 

 lows, their pellicle obliterated before they ripen. 



This herb has scarcely any aromatic or other sensible quality. The 

 root, worn about the neck with a string, is an old superstitious 

 remedy, or charm, for the King's Evil. 



287. MENTHA. Mint. 



Linn. Gen. 29 1. JussMS. F/. Br. 609. Tourn.L89. Lam.t.503. 



Cal, tubular, erect, with 5 nearly equal marginal teeth, per- 

 manent. Cor. straight, funnel-shaped, a little longer 

 than the calyx ; limb in 4 deep, slightly spreading, nearly 

 equal segments, the upper one rather the broadest, with 

 a slight notch. Filam. from the throat of the corolla, 

 aw4-shaped, straight, distant, longer or shorter than the 

 limb ; 2 uppermost rather the longest. Anth. of 2 round 

 lobes. Germ, superior, 4-lobed. Style thread-shaped, 

 erect, generally longer than the corolla. Stigma promi- 

 nent, in 2 sharp, spreading, equal segments. Seeds 4, 

 small, in the bottom of the calyx, rarely perfected. 



Roots perennial, creeping widely. Stems ascending, or erect, 

 branched, leafy, acutely quadrangular. Leaves stalked, 

 mostly ovate, serrated, undivided, without stipulas. Fl, 

 numerous, light purple, in stalked, very dense, whorls, 

 often crowded into leafless heads or spikes. All the herb- 

 age is more or less hairy, but variable in that respect ; 

 rarely woolly, or finely downy ; full of pellucid dots, 

 lodging a copious essential oil, which is pungently aro- 

 matic, cordial and stimulant. The species are extremely 

 variable in general habit, and have long been the oppro- 

 brium of British botanists, our country being peculiarly 

 rich in Mints, as Dillenius long ago observed. Rail Syn, 

 ed. o. 235. The situation and direction of the hairs of 

 the calyx were first pointed out, by the writer of the pre- 

 sent Flora, after a careful investigation of every known 

 species and variety, living or dried, as affording, in dif- 

 ficult cases, the only certain specific distinctions ; and 

 these prove invariable, though even the inflorescence is, in 

 some species, inconstant. See Observations on the British 

 Species q/' Mentha, Trans. ofLi?m. Soc, v .5. 171 — 217. 



