CLASS XIV. ORDER I.] MENTHA. 797 



crenated, the upper five lobed ; peduncles opposite the leaves ; calyx 

 reflexed, as long as the petals; carpels in a round head, beaked, piano- 

 compressed, spinoso-tuberculated, the margin smooth. 



English Botany, t. 120. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 53. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 220. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 11. 



Boot of numerous branched fibres. Stem branched, prostrate, round, 

 striated, smooth or hairy, leafy, from six to eighteen inches long, 

 hollow. Leaves a pale green, mostly clothed with soft spreading hairs, 

 petiolated, the lower ones roundish, heart-shaped, three or five lobed 

 and crenated, ^e upper ones of three or five entire lobes. Flowers 

 not very numerous, solitary, opposite to the leaves, peduncle short, 

 round. Calyx as long as the petals, reflexed, hairy. Petals narrow, 

 pale yellow, obovate, often wanting. Carpels in a round head, ob- 

 liquely rotundate, piano-compressed, with a smooth green margin, 

 terminating in a broad flat pointed beak, the disk tuberculated, ter- 

 minating in a Hiore or less stout spine. 



Habitat. — CcJ-'n fields and sandy places, not common ; about London, 

 Norwich, Nottingham, Lincoln, and the South-West of England. 

 Cork, Howth, and Dublin, Ireland. 



Annual; flowering in May and June. 



CLASS XIV. 

 DIDYNAMIA. 



(Four Stamens, two longer than the other two.) 



ORDER I. 



GYMNOSPER'MIA. (Fruit apparently naked.) 



GENUS I. MENTHA.— Linn. Mint. 



Nat. Ord. Labia 't^e. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx equal, five toothed, its mouth naked, or rarely 



villous. Corolla funnel-shaped, the limb four-cleft, nearly equal, 



the upper segment emarginate, its tube short. Stamens distant. 



Anthers with parallel ce\]s, Jilaments naked. —Name from Minthe, 



a daughter of Cocytus, who was changed by Proserpine into a 



herb, called by the same name, mint. Ovid. Met. 



* Mouth of the calyx naked. 



1. M. sylvesHris, Linn. (Fig. 912.) Horse Mint. Stem erect; 



leaves nearly sessile, ovate lanceolate, or oblong, acute, unequally 



5 L 



