i2 4 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



A fungus, Puccinia menthte, Mint Rust, attacks the leaves. Five 

 beetles, Meligethes viduatus, M. lugubris, M. obscurus, Ckrysowiela 

 mentkastri, C, polita; two moths, Pyra^lsta purpuralis (Crimson and 

 Gold Moth), No/a albitlalis; a Heteropterous insect, Zicrona casrulea; 

 and Eupteryx v^ttat^^,s, a Homopterous insect, feed on it. 



Mentka, Theophrastus, is from the Greek mintka or tnintke\ 

 Mintha, a nymph, being transformed into this plant by Proserpine. 

 The second name refers to the aquatic habitat. It is called Bishop's 

 Weed, Bishop's Wort, Fish Mint, Baulme Mint. It smells strongly 

 of peppermint, and an oil is expressed from this and other species 

 for the manufacture of it. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



246. Mentka aquatica, L. Stem erect, with subterranean stoles, 

 hirsute, leaves ovate, serrate, the upper ones less than the flowers, 

 flowers lilac, axillary, and terminal, subglobose. 



Gipsywort (Lycopus europaeus, L.) 



Gipsywort being a paludal plant is found in Preglacial beds in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk; Interglacial, late Glacial beds, in Suffolk; and 

 Neolithic beds. Its distribution lies in the Temperate regions in 

 Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, W. Asia, as far east as India, N. America, 

 Australia. It is thus a cosmopolitan species. In Great Britain it does 

 not occur in Berwick, Haddinsfton, Edinburgh, N. Perth, Forfar, 



o t * 



N. Aberdeen, Banff, Dumbarton, N. Ebudes, Sutherland, Caithness, 

 Northern Isles, or Brecon, Radnor, Montgomery, Merioneth, Wig- 

 town, Peebles, Selkirk, Mull, W. Ross. From Ross it ranges to the 

 S. coast. It is rare in Scotland, commoner in Ireland. 



There is scarcely a ditch or wet place where one may not come 

 across Gipsywort in the summer, for it is a common hygrophilous 

 plant, frequenting the sides of streams, brooks, and rivers, as well as 

 the still waters of ponds, pools, and lakes, along with Bur-reed, Bul- 

 rush, and reecls. 



The square, erect stem is more or less simple, with egg-shaped, 

 coarsely toothed, veined leaves, opposite, acute, likened to a wolf's foot 

 by Linnaeus, hence the first Greek name. The stem is roughly hairy 

 and bears opposite branches. The flowers are small, white, in whorls, 

 close, with a tubular, stiffly hairy calyx, with awl-shaped segments. 

 The corolla is a cylindrical tube with a short limb, with 4 blunt, softly 

 and loosely hairy segments. The nutlets equal the tube of the calyx, 

 and are brown and polished. There are only 2 stamens. Gipsywort 



