10 'Br. Sun\Cs botanical Hijlory 



mentions Af. exJgua as an Englifh plant, adding a new edition of 

 Lobel's fynonyni from Parkinlbn, and copying the Synopjis foi' its 

 place of growth. Whether he had afterwards found any variety 

 of M. Pukgium which he took for the mint in queftion ; whether 

 his fcruples arofe from neither himfelf nor his friends having ever 

 been able to detecSl M. exigua at all ; or whether, which is mofl 

 probable, the appearance and fmell of the fpccimens in Sir J. Banks's 

 herbarium decided his opinion, he inferted M. exigua in his fecond 

 edition, 1778, as the very fame plant with M. Pulegium ; for, not 

 having marked it with a greek /3, it feems he did not even think it 

 a variety. 



Such was the ftate of the cafe when the Linnean Herbarium ar- 

 rived among us. It was often conlulted on this fubjeft ; and at 

 length, in order to throw all the light upon it in my power, I pul> 

 lilhed as exatft a figure as I could delineate from one of the fpe- 

 cimens, in my Plantarum Icones hadienus inedit^, tab. 38, taking the 

 liberty to flrike out all the fynonyms except Ray (I ought rather to 

 have faid Dillenius), and exprefling my doubts of even that. I 

 mentioned a hint of Mr. Hudfon's, that the original fpecimens 

 might have been brought from Scotland by Houfton. But this con- 

 jedlure, as will hereafter appear, is totally groundlefs. 



Since the above publication I have been fo fortunate as to ac- 

 quire what appears, almoft beyond a doubt, the real plant of Dil- 

 lenius. Sir Jofeph Banks, not felicitous to encumber his herbarium 

 with doubtful fpecimens, very obligingly prefented me with a num- 

 ber of unfettled mints from Miller's coUeftion. Among them is one 

 with the following infcription in Buddie's hand-writing: 



*• Mentha verticillata minima odore fragrantiflimo. Buddie. 

 *' Flores huic minutiffimi raulti in unicum communem pedico- 



"lura 



