l88 Dr. Smith'j- Ohfervationi on 



Mentha florlbus fpicatis, foliis cordatis dentatls undulatis feflilibus. 

 Linn. Hort. Cliff'. 306. 11. 3. Herb. Cliff, but the I'ynonyms there quoted 

 belong to M. crijpa of Linnxus, a moft dilHncl fpecies. 



Another ipecimen with fhorter and rounder leaves is in the Clif- 

 fortian herbarium marked " Mentha crilpa verticillata C. Bauh. 

 Pin." which certainly it cannot be. This ipecimen however is not 

 alluded to in the Hortiis Cljforlianus. 



I have in my poflcffion two Ipecimens of this plant from Miller's 

 herbarium, communicated to him by Houflon, who gathered them 

 in the Leyden garden in 1728, and has affixed to them a ticket, in 

 his own hand-writing, containing four fynonyms, every one of 

 which, I verily believe, belongs to a different fpecies, and not one of 

 them to the plant in queftion ! With all thefe fynonyms it is how- 

 ever diftinguillied in Boerhaave's Hort. hugd. Bat. 185, n. 3. * and 

 a fifth is there fuperadded which belongs to ftill another fpecies dif- 

 ferent from all the reft. Such extreme confufion is rare, even in the 

 hiftory of Menthee ! It happens that one of thefe fynonyms, M. ro- 

 tiindifolia rubra, Jurantii odore, Mori/, v. 3. 369. belongs to Mr. Sole's 

 M. odorata, commonly called in our gardens Orange Mint ; and the 

 mofi: curious circumflance of all is, that Miller, in the 8th edition 

 of his Dictionary, n. 9, meaning to defcribe this Orange Mint by the 

 name of M. rubra, and happening to have before him the two fpe- 

 cimens now in my pofTeffion, with this erroneous fynonym of Mori- 

 fon annexed, fabricated from them his chara(5ler and defcription; 

 confequently what he has faid by no means accords with the plant 

 implied by his latin as well as englilhi name, and which I have no 

 doubt was what he had in his garden. 



' Thefe fynonyms were copied by Koufton from Boerhaave's work, as appears by am 

 •iror of the prefs which he has retained, in citing John Bauhin, 318 inflead of 218. 



4. Mentha. 



