4 



SPIKED MINTS. 



PL. I. 



i. LONG-LEAVED HORSE-MINT. 



THIS is a tall elegant plant, ufually growing four feet or more in 

 height; its leaves are long, acuminated, ferrated and feffile, embracing the 

 ftalk, they are woolly and hoary on the under fide, and green and hairy 

 on the upper fide; the veins of the leaves form a beautiful net-work, 

 equally vifible on both fides. The ftalks are quadrangular, hoary, and 

 upright, terminating in neat (lender fpikes of flowers, compofed of fmall 

 rundles, with long, narrow, confpicuous, brafteal leaves under each rundle. 

 The flowers are very fmall for the fize of the plant, and are of a beautiful 

 pale lilac colour. The ftamens are always fhorter than the flower, and 

 cannot be feen but when the bloffbm is quite expanded.* It blolToms the 

 laft week in July, and the whole plant has a difagreeable goatifh minty 

 fmell. 



It is met with in ditches under hedges, and about mill-dams, and in 

 obfolete water-courfes, but is not common. I obferved it in a lane going 

 from Littlebury to Lord Howard's on the left hand, and in a mill-dam at 

 Matlock; and the wild fpecimen from which this plate was done, I found 

 in a clofe at Box, Wilts, called Box-Lays. 



* Linnseus and Haller both make it a leading feature in this plant, that the ftamens are longer 

 than the flower; but as I have never yet found it fo, either in its wild or cultivated flate, I durft 

 not adopt either of their defcriptions. 



2. MENTHA 



