MINTS. 111 
Gulf. P. coccinea of the desert-country is the only red-flowered 
kind. 
The Mints of Victoria comprise four specific forms, not in all 
instances easily separable, a remark which applies as well to many 
extra-australian Mints. Our Forest-Mint (Mentha laxiflora) is 
characterised already among the native Victorian species by its 
toothed leaves and by the considerable length of the stalklets of 
its flowers. Our River-Mint (Mentha australis) produces leaves 
almost teethless and lanceolar ; the flowers are nearly sessile, and 
the teeth of the calyx very narrow. Between this and the small 
depressed M. saturejoides holds almost an intermediate place the 
pretty Mentha gracilis. An oil, similar to that of Peppermint, 
can be distilled from these herbs. 
The order of Myoporine, to whose characteristics has already 
been alluded cursorily, should not be entirely passed on this occasion, 
as its numerous showy plants are real ornaments to the vegetation 
especially of our desert tracts. This applies particularly to the 
genus Hremophila, all the species of which are elegant shrubs, 
many now valued in select cultivation. /. maculata with red 
and spotted flowers is the best known of all, and curious for its 
almost S-shaped flower-stalks. No name of a genus could have 
been happier chosen than that of Hremophila, as all the species, 
more than half a hundred, are confined to desert-ground, all 
Australian only. The etymon of Myoporum is from the porous 
leaves, those of the first described M. leettum from New Zealand 
being dotted but not perforated by thousands of pellucid pores. 
The genus is particularly interesting as showing the transit from 
an almost symmetric five-lobed corolla to the variously modified 
bilabiate corolla of Hremophila, also in developing not only the 
four fertile stamens peculiar to its series of orders, but also in 
complete isometry sometimes five equal fertile stamens. J. 
insulare is a dwarf tree of saline-grounds with small purplish 
succulent fruits and carnulent-thick mostly lanceolar and some- 
what denticulated leaves. M. platycarpum of the deserts, adjoin- 
ing the Murray-River, exudes from its stem a saccharine secretion, 
of which the native tribes used to be very fond. 
