BOGS, MARSHES, WET PLAGES— SUMMER 247 





sessile flowers from June to September. The calyx has five equal 

 teeth with stiff points ; and the corolla, which is only shghtly 

 longer than the calyx, has four nearly equal lobes. This plant is 

 abundant in most parts of Britain, and is generally seen on the 

 banks of ditches. 



In the same order we 

 have the Mints (genus 

 Mentha) — strongly- 

 scented plants with 

 creeping rootstocks and 

 runners; and small flowers 

 in dense, axillary whorls, 

 or in terminal spikes or 

 clusters. In all the calyx 

 has five equal teeth ; and 

 the corolla is bell-shaped, 

 \vith a short tube, and 

 four lobes of which the 

 upper is broader. There 

 are four erect, equal sta- 

 mens ; and the fruit 

 consists of four small, 

 smooth nuts. Three 

 species, more or less 

 abundant, occur in 

 marshy or other wet 

 places. They are : — 



1. The Round-leaved 

 Mint {Mentha rotimdi- 



folia). — A moderately ' ' 



common, erect, haiiy the round-leaved mint. 



plant, from one to three 



feet high, with a powerful but hardly agreeable odour. Its stem is 

 green, hairy, and branched ; and the leaves are sessile, broadly 

 ovate or round, blunt, wrinkled, green above, and whitish and shaggy 

 beneath. The flowers are small, hlac (occasionally white), in dense, 

 cylindrical, leafy spikes from one to two inches long. The bracts 

 are rather narrow and sharply pointed, and the corolla is 

 hairy. The time of flowering is August and September. 



2. The Water Mint {M. aquatica). — An abundant marsh plant, 

 from one to three feet high, flowering from July to September, 



