DID YNAM1A Gymnospermia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Cor. nearly regular, 4-cleft;
its broadest segment notched. Stamina erect, distant.
Spec. Char. Flowers whorled. Leaves ovato-lan-
ceolate, tapering at each end. Calyx hairy all
over. Hairs of the flowerstalks spreading.
S y n . Mentha acutifolia. Sm. Tr. o f Finn. Soc. v. 5.
2 0 3 . FI. Brit. 6 1 9 . Hull. ed. 2. 1 7 3 .
M. verticillata. JVLill. Diet. ed. 8. n. 17.
H A Y I N G in vain explored the banks o f the Medway for
recent specimens o f this M in t, we are obliged to make the
best representation we can o f it from one o f R an d ’s original
ones, preserved, with his hand-writing annexed, in Miller s
herbarium, and g iv en us b y Sir J . B anks. T h is is the very
identica l specimen, described in a ll the places indicated above.
I t m a y very possibly be a variety o f M. hirsuta, t . 4 4 7 and
4 4 8 , but several circumstances seem to make it distinct. The
leaves are narrower, more pointed or tapering at each end, and
more unequally serrated. On this last mark indeed experience
teaches us to la y little stress, any more than on the sweet smell,
lik e frankincense th ym e , wh ich the specimen still retains. The
hairs cloth in g the flowerstalks are horizontal or sligh tly recurved,
not deflexed clqse to the stalk ; what inclination they
h a v e is, however, that w a y , so this m a y b e merely a difference
in degree o f depression. T h e whorls are all quite sessile. Corolla
ha iry in th e throat, in w h ich the stamens are included.
T h e b od y o f the c a ly x is clothed entirely w ith ascending
hairs, especially at th e base, w h ich essentially distinguishes
this plant from rubra, t. 1413.