Abstract: New chiral methacryalte monomers (M1~M3) and the corresponding polymers (P1~P3) based on menthol were prepared. Their chemical structures were characterized by FT-IR, or ¹H-NMR, and the mesomorphism was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarizing optical microscopy (POM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The selective reflection property was studied with UV/visible/NIR spectroscopy. The experimental results show that no mesomorphism appeared in the M1 and P1 while the mesomorphism and the selective reflection revealed in the M2 and M3, with a chiral smectic C (SC^*) phase and cholesteric phase exhibited in M2 and a single cholesteric phase in M3. The melting and clearing temperatures of M1~M3 raised with the increasing of the mesogenic core rigidity and the shortening of the flexible spacer length. Except for P1, P2 and P3 showed enantiotropic thermotropic mesomorphism and color texture of cholesteric phase. Moreover, the mesophase temperature ranges of the polymers were greater than those of the corresponding monomers.