648 



THE LABIATE FAMILY. 



lowing, 

 tumn. 



Water Mint. Mentha aquatica, Linn. (Fig. 777.) 



(M. hirsuta, Eng. Bot. t. 447, and 31. odorata, t, 1025.) 



Usually a rather coarse perennial, 1 to 

 1^ feet high, much branched, and al- 

 most always softly hairy, although some 

 varieties become nearly glabrous. Leaves 

 stalked, ovate or slightly heart-shaped. 

 Flowers larger than in the horse M. and 

 the round-leaved M., in dense, terminal, 

 globular or oblong heads, of more than 

 half an inch in diameter, with occa- 

 sionally 1, 2, or more additional whorls 

 in the axils of the upper leaves. Calyx 

 tubular, about 1\ lines long, with fine 

 pointed teeth. 



In wet ditches, and marshes, and on 

 the edges of streams, throughout Europe 

 and Russian Asia, and now naturalized 

 in many other countries. Abundant in 

 Britain generally, but, like the two fol- 

 becomes rarer in the north of Scotland. Fl. summer and aw- 



Fig. 777. 



6. Whorled Mint. Mentha sativa, Linn. (Fig. 778.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 448, and M. acutifolia, t. 2415.) 



Intermediate, as it were, between the 

 water M., and the corn M., this plant 

 has the foliage and calyx of the former, 

 but the stem is less erect and often low 

 and spreading, as in the corn M. 9 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 the corn M. is in the more tubular, 

 longer calyx, and larger flowers ; but 

 immediate forms are so numerous, con- 

 necting it on the one hand with the corn 

 M. and on the other with the water M., 

 that many botanists have considered it as 

 a mere variety of the one or of the other. 

 These points cannot be determined with- 



