WHIRLED MINTS. 



PL. XXI. 



21. TALL RED MINT. 



THIS is the moft elegant plant of all the Mint tribe, growing from 

 three to four feet in height ; its ftalk is fquare, hard, and red, or rather 

 of a dark chefnut colour; upright, except towards the top, where it be- 

 comes flowing, as do alfo the collateral branches, which are not very 

 numerous; the main ftalk or leader runs on to a greater height than in 

 all other mints, except the laft No. xx. with this difference, the leader in 

 that runs upright and formal— in this, it is flowing, graceful, and eafy; 

 the leaves ftand on fhort footftalks, they are rigid, fomewhat crifped or 

 curled, ovate, pointed, and deeply ferrated all the way down to the very 

 point itfelf ; the nerves of the leaves are red and a little hairy, as are alfo 

 the edges of the leaves, but the furfaces are fmooth. The clufters of 

 flowers fit in the bofoms of the leaves ; the flowers are larger than thofe 

 of any other mint, of a bright red colour, having the ftamens longer 

 than the blofom. 



John Bauhin's defcription of it is excellent, as indeed moft of his are. 



I brought this plant twenty-three years ago from a brook in North- 

 Wales. I alfo faw it in various waters in Colebrook-Dale, as well as in 

 a wet place between Kidderminfter and Bridgenorth, Salops. 



It is a late plant, and flowers in September. 



