Mentha.] LVII. LABIATE. 347 



a leafy, somewhat spreading panicle. Flowers small, pale pink, or 

 sometimes white. 



Nearly as widely diffused over Europe and temperate Asia as the last, 

 but rather more of a western plant. It spreads also more readily as an 

 accompaniment of cultivation. In Britain, rather more common than 

 M. silvestris, but, except in the southern counties, introduced. Fl. 

 summer, rather late. Specimens occur so nearly intermediate between 

 these two species that it is difficult to say to which they belong. 



3. M. viridis, Linn. (fig. 782). Spear M. — An erect or ascending 

 perennial, with the narrow leaves sessile or nearly so, and the cylindrical 

 terminal spikes of M. silvestris, but the stem and leaves are green and 

 glabrous, although there are often hairs on the calyx and bracts. 



Chiefly known in Europe, Asia, and North America, as the common 

 Mint of gardens, and only found apparently wild in countries where it 

 has been long cultivated. Occurs occasionally in Britain under similar 

 circumstances. Fl. end of summer. It is not improbably a mere variety 

 of M. silvestris, of garden or accidental origin, rendered perpetual by 

 its ready propagation by suckers. 



4. M. piperita, Huds. (fig. 783). Pepper M. — A perennial, less erect 

 than M. viridis, glabrous like that species or nearly so. Leaves more 

 stalked and broader. Spikes fuller, consisting of larger whorls ; the 

 lower ones often distant, showing an approach to the character of M. 

 aquatica. 



The common pungent variety appears to be of garden origin, 

 occasionally spreading in wet places in several parts of Europe. Indi- 

 cated in several localities in England and Ireland. Fl. end of summer. 

 It may possibly prove to be a mere variety of M. aquatica. 



5. M. aquatica, Linn. (fig. 784). Water M. — Usually a rather coarse 

 perennial, 1 to 1^ feet high, much branched, and almost always softly 

 hairy, although some varieties become nearly glabrous. Leaves stalked, 

 ovate or slightly heart-shaped. Flowers larger than in M. silvestris and 

 M. rotundifolia, in dense, terminal, globular or oblong heads, of more 

 than half an inch in diameter, with occasionally 1, 2, or more additional 

 whorls in the axils of the upper leaves. Calyx tubular, about 1J lines 

 long, with fine pointed teeth. 



In wet ditches, and marshes, and on the edges of streams, throughout 

 Europe and Bussian Asia, and now naturalised in many other countries. 

 Abundant in Britain generally, but, like the two following, becomes 

 rarer in the north of Scotland. Fl. summer and autumn. [A variety, 

 M. pubescens, Willd., with narrower sharply serrate leaves and stout 

 cylindric spikes, occurs in the midland and southern counties of 

 England.] 



6. M. sativa, Linn. (fig. 785). Whorled M. — Intermediate, as it 

 were, between M. aquatica and M. arvensis, this plant has the foliage 

 and calyx of the former, but the stem is less erect and often low and 

 spreading, as in M. arvensis, and the flowers, as in the latter species, are 

 all in distinct axillary whorls, without any terminal head or spike, or 

 with only a very few flowers in the axils of the last pair of floral leaves. 

 Its chief difference from M. arvensis is in the more tubular, longer calyx, 

 and larger flowers ; but intermediate forms are so numerous, connecting 

 it on the one hand with M. arvensis, and on the other with M, aquatica, 

 that many botanists have considered it as a mere variety of the one or 



