D ID Y N A M IA Gymnofpermia.
Gen. Char. Cor. nearly regular, four-cleft; its broad-
eft fegment notched. Stamina ere6t, diftant.
Spec. Char. Flowers in denfe compound terminal
heads. Leaves on fhort foot-fialks, ovate, lerrated,
hairy. Stamina longer than the corolla.
Syn. Mentha hirfuta. Linn. Mant. 81. With. <22
HudJ. ed. 1. 223.
M. aquatica /3 et y Hudf. 232.
Sifymbrium hirfutum. Rail Syn. 233.
y 1 --------- — -------
V E RT common in clear ditches, rivulets, and other watery
places, growing fometimes among large graffes and reeds, fome-
times by itfelf, flowering in Auguft.
Rootslong, branched, creeping under water, perennial. Stem
Iquare, branched, very generally purplifh, rough with deflexed
hairs, which are fcattered all over it, not ranged along the edges;
there is however a denfe tuft of fimilar hairs, between the insertions
of the foot-ftalks, which are ere£t, and the hairs on the
foot-ftalks and leaves alfo point upwards or forwards. The
degree of hairinefs throughout the whole plant varies extremely.
Branches oppofite. Leaves on fhortilh foot-ftalks, fometimes
almoft feflile, fpreading, ovate, frequently approaching to elliptical,
pointed, ferrated from a little above the bafe to near the
tip, paler and moft hairy beneath, efpecially about the nerves.
Flowers lilac-coloured, numerous, in a large round terminal
head, which, when accurately obferved, is found to be divided
into three parts, and is accompanied (at a greater or lefs di-
ftance below it) by a pair, rarely more, of fmaller axillary heads.
Flower-ftalks and calyx very hairy. Stamina generally longer
than the corolla. 6
_When out of the water it grows much fmaller, more purple,
with a Ample head of flowers, which feems to be Hudfon’s
variety y, though not very well drawn by Dillenius in Ray’s
SynopAs, tab. 10. f . 1. 1
. Hudfon has conAdered this as the fame fpecies (poflibly
jultly) with the Mentha aquatica feu Sifymbrium of John Bau-
bin, and Ray’s SynopAs p. 233, which we believe to be the
M. piperita of Linnaeus, and which is defcribed in Sir Tof.
Banks’s manufcripts by the name of M. Sifymbrium. The
M. aquatica of Linnaeus feems different from both the above,
but we have not yet fufficiently inveftigated that point.