MINT FAMILY 



447 



geographic segregation. In pubescence, length of petiole and number of whorls the various forms 

 pass by small gradations into each other. 



Var. lanata Piper. Upper part of stem and leaves (especially the lower surface) perma- 

 nently lanate or villous ; tlowers invested in wool when young, shaggy-villous at maturity. — Mostly 

 near the coast, 10 to 1500 feet: Los Angeles Elver, Braunton 598; Santa Barbara (Bull. Torr. 

 Club 29:223); Laguna, San Luis Obispo Co., Unangst ; West Berkeley, Greene; Dry Lagoon 

 (near Stone Lagoon), Humboldt coast, Tracy 13,501. North to Washington. 



Eefs. — Mentha arvensis L. var. canadensis Briq. ; Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflzfam. 43:319 

 (1895). M. canadensis L., Sp. PI. 577 (1753), type from Canada, Kalm (cf. Epling, Jour. Bot. 

 67:8) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 466 (1901), ed. 2, 305 (1911). M. arvensis Jepson, Man. 885, 

 fig. 831 (1925). Var. glabrata Fer., Ehod. 10:86 (1908). M. canadensis var. glahrata Benth., 

 Lab. Gen. et Sp. 181 (1833), resting on M. boreaUs Michx., Fl. Bor. Am. 2:2 (1803), type loe. 

 '•juxta amnes ad sinuum Hudsoniis deflucntes." Re- 

 deoma purpurea Kell., Proc. Cal. Acad. 5:52 (1875), 

 type loc. Webb's Ldg., Bouldin Isl., San Joaquin Elver, 

 Kellogg, belongs here ace. K. Brandegee, Zoe 4:215. 

 Microineria purpurea Gray, Bot. Cal. 1:595 (1876). 

 Satureia purpurea Briq. in Eugler & Prantl, Nat. 

 Pflzfam. 43«:300 (1896). Var. lanata Piper, Bull. 

 Torr. Club 29:223 (1902), type loc. Parrotts, Lincoln 

 Co., Wash., Lahe # Bull 603*. M. lanata Eydb., Bull. 

 Torr. Club 36:687 (1909). 



2. M. pulegium L. Pennyroyal. Stems 

 prostrate and rooting at the joints or decum- 

 bent, 1 to 2 feet long; herbage pubescent; 

 leaf-blades elliptic- to oblong-ovate, serrate or 

 entire, 4 to 8 lines long, shortly petioled or sub- 

 sessile ; flower-whorls discrete, on the terminal 

 branches, the subtending leaves reduced or 

 bract-like and orbicular to broadly obovate, 

 sessile or subsessile, shorter than or slightly ex- 

 ceeding the flower whorls; 3 upper calyx-teeth 

 triangular, acuminate, the 2 lower lanceolate- 

 subulate, all ciliate-bristly, the throat with a 

 ring of hairs ; corolla lavender, nearly twice as 

 long as the calyx, minutely puberulent, its 

 lobes with a long thin or dense tuft of hairs ou 

 back at apex. 



Sloughs, marshes, moist flats and ditches, 10 to 2600 feet: Humboldt Co. to 

 Monterey Co.; lower San Joaquin River ; Madera Co. ; San Diego Co. Naturalized 

 from Europe. July-Oct. 



Note on immigration. — Mentha pulegium, a European immigrant, was discovered on Bouldin 

 Island, lower San Joaquin Elver, by Albert Kellogg in 1875 or earlier, at Stockton in 1888 by H. P. 

 Fitch and at Santa Eosa by E. L. Greene in the same year. It has since migrated widely in our 

 territory. From 1925 to 1936 it has become common and is spreading rapidly in the Redwood 

 belt of the North Coast Eanges. Various stations throughout California are cited as follows: 

 Orick, nw. Humboldt Co., Tracy 15,078; Phillipsville, South Fork Eel Elver, Humboldt Co., Jepson 

 17,872; Briceland, s. Humboldt Co., Tracy 6336 (a range weed, taking possession of the most 

 fertile and moist parts of the grassy hills and thus crowding out valuable forage. — J. P. Tracy) ; 

 Dimmick Park, sw. Mendocino Co., Jepson 17,674; Monte Rio, Eussian Eiver, Jepson 2363; 

 Watson School, Bodega, Jepson 15,938; Manzanita sta., Marin Co. Jepson 10,657; Palo Alto, 

 Conadon; betw. Castroville and Salinas, J. B. BicTcman; North Fork sta., Madera Co., Jepson 

 10,002; Mesa Grande, San Diego Co. (Bull. S. Cal. Acad. 24:50). 



Eefs. — Mentha pulegium L., Sp. PI. 577 (1753) type European; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal 

 466 (1901), ed. 2, 365 (1911), Man. 885 (1925). 



3. M. piperita L. Peppermint. Plants commonly lush with numerous sterile 

 stems in clumjis 2 to 5 feet high; stems erect, commonly strict and unbrauclied 

 below the terminal inflorescence; herbage glabrous; leaf-blades ovate-oblong to 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute, sparsely and sharply serrate, mostly obtuse at base, % 

 to 1% inches long, shortly but distinctly petioled; spikes dense, scarcely inter- 



Fig. 445. 

 canadensis 



Mentha arvensis L. var. 

 Briq. a, fl. branchlet. 



X V2 ; b, fl., X 2% ; c, nutlets, X 71/2. 



