Mentha J] 



LXIII. LABIATE. 



319 



f f Leaves stalked, 



4. M. piperita Sm. (Pepper M.) ; leaves ovate-knceoLate or 

 oblong strongly serrate aeute slightly hairy stalked, upper ones 

 smaller, spikes lax short obtuse interrupted below, bracteas 

 lanceolate, calyx tubular with lanceolate subulate teeth quite 

 glabrous at the base, E. B, t. 687. — (3. sylvestris (Sole), leaves 

 ovate-rounded and almost cordate at the base, spikes elongated. 



Watery places, in many parts of England, but often escaped from 



gardens. Alford, Aberdeenshire; North Queensfcrry, 1^. 8, 9 



Much cultivated for the sake of its essential oil, wliich resides in 

 minute glands conspicuous on the leaves and especially on the caL 

 Mr. W. Wilson finds a var. near Warrington, in which these glands 

 are not visible even with a microscope : " its odour is sweet and mild, 

 without the pungency of the common sort cultivated in gardens." 



5. M.aqudtica L. (Wafer capitate M.)'^ leaves ovate serrate 

 stalked rounded or slightly cordate at the base, uppermost ones 

 bracteiform and shorter than the flowers, flowers dense in ter- 

 minal obtuse heads or spikes and sometimes also in remote 

 axillary whorls, calyx tubular, its teeth triangular-subulate. 

 a. leaves pubescent, calyx and pedicels hairy, M. hirsuta Z. ; 



E. B. t. 447.- 



■/3. leaves incise-toothed and crisped. 



E.B.S.t.2785?- " 



M. citrata Ekrh. 



M- crispa 

 -y. leaves, calyx, and pedicels quite glabrous. 

 M. odorata Sole : E. B. t 1025.^ 



Banks of rivers and marshes, freque^nt. 

 rear Audley-End, Essex. 

 Wales. %] 8, 9. 



B,? Northumberland, and 

 7. Cheshire, and near Bedford in N. 

 Of the var, 7, we have only seen garden speci- 

 mens : it is quite glabrous and has the smell of the Bergamot- orange or 

 the herbage of Monarda didyma^ whence it is called the Bergamot-mint, 

 We refer M. crispa E. B. S. here, on the authority of Mr. Bentham ; 

 hut the flowers are not sufficiently capitate, although the spike be 

 shorter than in M. piperita; Mr. Babington refers It to M. sylvestris : 

 as, however, all the crisped-leaved forms o( Mint are monstrosities, the 

 species from which they are derived can scarcely he determined by 

 the usual characters. 



*>t! 



Throat of the cal. nahed, lajlorescence Indeterminate, floivers in 

 axillary distant whorls^ none among the uppermost leaves (or much 

 shorter than they). 



f Leaves stalked, 



^ 6, M. sativa L. (Marsh wharled 31.) ; leaves stalked ellip- 

 tical ovate or ovate-lanceolate serrate, upper ones similar but 

 smaller all longer than the distant dense whorls, calyx with 



i Ne 

 jcct to 



arly all the species of this genus are hairv with serrate leaves, but are snb- 

 r.^«f» two principal variations, viz. :^to be almost entirolv glabrous, in which 

 of rtl ^^5^'*=f*s and lower part of the calyx become quite glabrous, and the odour 

 Th « 1 ^P^^^^^ *s milder and even pleasant ; — and to have the leaves cut and crisped. 



considornhiP^?''''^ ^"^^ is sometimes accompanied with a 



considerable change iii the inflorescence. 



P 4 



