2785
MENTHA crispa.
Curled Mint.
DIDYNAMIA Gymnospermia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Cor. nearly regular, 4-
cleft, its broadest segment notched. Stamens
erect, distant.
Spec. Char. Whorls spiked, crowded, lower ones
distinct. Pedicels rather smooth. Calyx sparsely
hairy. Adult Corolla smooth, the upper lip 2-
lobed. Style exserted. Leaves subsessile, cordate,
rugose, crisped at the margin with long
pointed teeth, hairy, especially beneath. Stem
straight, sometimesbranched, hairy, hairsreflexed.
Syn. Mentha crispa. Linn. Sp. PI. 805. Stokes,
Bot. Mat. Med. v. 3. 317. Nees ab Esenb. PI.
Med. Ic. fi de Benth.
M. aquatica y. crispa. Benth. Labiata. 177.
M. foliis rugosis, hrevissime petiolatis, verticillis
spiratis. Hall. Hist. Stirp. Helvet. v. 1. 100.
I HAVE seen this species of Mint growing on the banks
of the Wooler Water, near Haughhead, ana on the banks
of a rivulet leading into the same water above Longlyford,
at the bottom of the highest mountain of the Cheviot range,
Northumberland, for some years, but considered it to be in
a diseased state. However, observing it every year the
same, I supposed it a Mint new to the British Flora. In
1833 I shewed it to my friend Dr, Johnstone, of Berwick-
on-Tweed, the author of the Berwickshire Flora, who on a
careful examination declared it to be the Mentha crispa of
Linnaeus. Since that, through the kindness of Mr. Bennett,
of the British Museum, I have had an opportunity of comparing
my specimens with those in the Linnaean and other
herbariums, as also of perusing the various works on Mints,
and thereby to give the following statement.
The Northumberland plant agrees well with the speci