NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



established it covers itself with flowers during the spring months 

 and produces a few solitary flowers during summer. They are of a 

 deep mauve colour, freely spotted with orange on a white ground. 

 The plant is perennial. Johnson's Gardener's Dictionary, in describ- 

 ing both Mazus rugosus and M. Pumilio as hardy annuals, is 

 erroneous. M. Pumilio is quite distinct, producing slender under- 

 ground rhizomes and spathulate leaves i inch long. It flowers only 

 in summer. 



By R. W. (Garden, April 12, p. 178). — There is a doubt as to 

 the correctness of the name. Sweet figures M. rugosus in vol. i. 

 of British Flower Garden as an annual, and Sir Joseph Hooker de- 

 scribes it in vol. iv. of his Flora of British India as a glabrous or 

 sparsely hairy annual without runners. This is a different and less 

 valuable plant than that of the Wargrave Plant Farm. Is it one of 

 the new Chinese species ? Except in colour of flowers it agrees with 

 the description of M. pulchellus collected by Dr. Henry at Ichang. 



H. R. D. 



Meadow. By J. A. Bonsteel [U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Bureau oj Soils, 

 Circ. 68 ; July 1912). — ^The term Meadow " in the language of the 

 United States Bureau of Soils signifies one particular stage of alluvial 

 land which has not yet been built up beyond the reach of periodical 

 submersion and of the addition of surface deposits through the medium 

 of running water. It occurs under the tide-water at the mouths of 

 rivers, and at intervals along both or alternate banks of rivers which 

 are fed by mountain streams, and these successive deposits may 

 therefore consist of varying material brought from widely different 

 formations, and the added layer is in some instances deep and heavy 

 enough to obliterate all traces of existing cultivation. Meadow 

 may consist of valuable pasture (it was the discovery of this fact 

 by early pioneers which originally determined the choice of its name) , 

 of wild grasses, of arable land, and of the many thousand acres of 

 such land which exist in the United States many thousands are as 

 yet waste or are covered with dense forest. It is from its nature 

 undrained, and is difficult to classify, as its character may suddenly 

 be entirely changed by the addition of some new deposit ; but it includes 

 some of the best pasture land in the States, and much more of it might 

 well be made to pay for the cost of clearing, draining, and protection 

 from overflow and from the encroachment of tide- water. — M. L. H. 



Mentha. By Anton Topitz {Beih. Bot. Cent. xxx. Abt. 2, Heft 2, 

 pp. 138-264 ; 144 figs.) . — ^This paper is a full and complete description 

 of the European Mints. There is a short preliminary account of the 

 morphology of Mentha, and then follows the detailed description with 

 figures of the leaves of all the varieties and forms. The number of 

 names of species and varieties of Mints treated of in this paper amounts 

 to about six hundred. Of these, we think 213 are new names of 

 varieties, &c., proposed by the author. There is a good index and 

 bibliography. 



