346 THE LABIATE FAMILY. [ Lycopus. 
Il. LYCOPUS. LYCOPUS. 
Herbs, with the habit and flowers of Mentha, but with only 2 stamens, 
and the nuts surrounded by a thickened, somewhat corky border. 
Besides the British species there are but very few, dispersed over Europe, 
Asia, and North America. Perhaps indeed all but one may be mere varie- 
ties of the common one. 
1, G. europzeus, Linn. (fig. 777). Common Lycopus, Gipsywort.—A 
tall, erect, and branching perennial, slightly hairy, with a shortly creeping 
rootstock. Leaves shortly stalked, lanceolate, or almost ovate, deeply 
toothed or pinnatifid. Flowers small and very numercus, in dense axillary 
whorls or clusters, seldom exceeding the leafstalk. Calyx-teeth 5, stiff 
and pointed. Corolla scarcely exceeding the calyx-teeth, and nearly 
equally 4-lobed. Stamens rather long. 
In wet ditches, and marshes, throughout Europe, Russian and central 
Asia, and North America, and perhaps the same species in Australia. 
Abundant in England and Ireland, extending into Scotland, but becoming 
rare as it advances northward. Fl. summer. 
Ill. MENTHA. MINT. 
Perennial herbs, usually downy or hairy, with rather small flowers in 
dense whorls or clusters, which are either collected in terminal heads or 
spikes, or axillary and distant. Calyx of 5 teeth, regular or slightly 2- 
lipped. Corolla with a short tube and a campanulate 4-lobed limb, the 
upper lobe rather broader and sometimes slightly notched. Stamens 4, 
equal and erect, the anthers 2-celled. Nuts smooth, not bordered. 
A natural genus, not numerous in species, but widely diffused over the 
greater part of the globe without the tropics, and most of the species, from 
the variety of situations to which they will adapt themselves, vary so much 
as to render their exact definition almost hopeless. Many of them also pro- 
pagate so readily from suckers, that individual varieties are perpetuated so 
as to assume the appearance of species. Almost all the species vary in 
the stamens, in some individuals much longer than the corolla, in others in- 
cluded within the tube, and often barren ; and in several species individuals 
occur with all the leaves crisped and cut, and have been published as dis- 
tinct, under the names of IM. crispa or crispata. Hybrids also probably 
occur, and may have been the origin of some supposed species, such as M/. 
gentilis, Sole., which are not now to be found wild. 
Whorls of flowers in terminal spikes or heads. 
Leaves mostly sessile. Flowers in spikes. 
Leaves and stem downy or hairy. 
Leaves narrow-ovate or lanceolate . . . . . I. M. silvestris. 
Leaves broadly ovate or orbicular . R ° . . 2 M. rotundifolia, 
Leaves and stem glabrous . . . . : ~ » 3 M. viridis, 
Leaves all shortly stalked. 
Flowers in cylindrical or elongated spikes . . ° . 
Flowers in terminal, globular or ovoid heads (rarely with 
a few dense clusters below the terminal one) : . 5. M. aquatica. 
Whorls of flowers all axillary, the last (terminal) pair of leaves 
having no flowers or only a very small whorl. 
Flowering-stems ascending or erect, Leaves.coarsely crenate. 
Throat of the calyx not closed with hairs. 
Calyx tubular, with narrow teeth . 5 : Fi ° . 6. M, sativa. 
4, WM. piperita. 
