76 DIDYNAMIA— GYMNOSPERMIA. Mentha. 



^. By the river at Bocking, Essex. Dale. By the Medway near 

 Maidstone, Kent. Plukenet. At Babergh near Norwich. Mr. 

 Pitchford. Near Acle church, Norfolk, towards the south. Mr. 

 D. Turner. 



y. In a meadow at Bocking, Essex. Dale, Dillenius. 



S. In a meadow by Marwood bridge, between Mersey island and 

 Colchester. Dill. 



Perennial. August. 



Stems 2 or 3 feet high, erect, branched, acutely angular, smooth, 

 often purplish. Leaves sessile, lanceolate, acute, serrated, 

 smooth ; sometimes a little hairy beneath, especially in the 3 

 latter varieties, in all which also they are shorter and broader, 

 with a less agreeable scent, than in a, the true garden Spear 

 Mint, or Mackarel Mint. Spikes par.icled, elongated, acute } 

 almost all the whorls a little distant from each other, with narrow 

 or bristle-shaped bracteas, which are seldom quite smooth even 

 in a, and in the varieties are more or less hairy, as well as 

 broader. Flower-stalks always, in every variety, perfectly 

 smooth, round and polished. Cal. narrow-bell-shaped, fur- 

 rowed, with 1 ribs, besprinkled, like the foliage, with resinous 

 dots, and always quite smooth, except the teeth, which though 

 generally smooth or naked in the primary variety, in all the 

 others are variously hairy. The separate flower in Engl. Bat. 

 t. 2424 shows this in the variety /3, to which also the leaf be- 

 longs. Cor. light purple, smooth, generally longer than the 

 stamens. Style prominent. The whole inflorescence, bracteas 

 and calyx often acquire a dark purplish hue. 



The whole herb is gratefully aromatic, warm and pungent ; the 

 flavour of the varieties less agreeable. The perfectly smooth and 

 xisikeA flower-stalks, in all the varieties, are essentially charac- 

 teristic of this species. 



I suspect M. crispa of Linnaeus, Ehrh. PI. Of. 206^ known in gar- 

 dens only, may be a variety of M. viridis. 



4. M. piperita. Pepper Mint. 



Spikes blunt, interrupted below. Leaves stalked, somewhat 

 ovate, smoothish. Calyx very smooth at the base. 



M, piperita. Sm. Tr. of Linn. Sac. v. 5. 189. Fl. Br. 613, 

 a. Leaves ovate- lanceolate. Spikes elongated. 

 M. piperita. Engl. Bot.v.lO. t.687. Huds.25]. With. 523, mr. 2. 

 Woodv. t.\m. Hull 1 72. Pharmac. Land. Ehrh. PI. Off. 2] 6. 

 M. piperita officinalis. Sole Menth. 15. t. 7. 

 M. officinalis. Hull ed.\. 127. 



M. aquatica nigricans, fervido sapore. Herb. Buddie. 

 Eales' Pepper Mint. Pet. H. Brit. t.Sl.f.lO. 

 /3. Leaves ovate. Spikes shorter and blunter, almost capitate. 

 M. piperita. Hull ed. 1.127. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 3. 79. 



