N. ORD.—LABIATZ. 116 
Tribe.—SATUREIZ. 
GENUS.—MENTHA,* LINN. 
SEX, SYST.—DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA. 
MENTHA PIPERITA. 
PEPPERMINT. 
SYN.—MENTHA PIPERITA, SMITH, VAR. OFFICINALIS, KOCH; M. VIRIDI- 
AQUATICA, SHULTZ; M. OFFICINALIS AND HIRCINA, HULL; M. PALUS- 
TRIS, RAII. 
COM. NAMES.—PEPPERMINT; (FR.) MENTHE POIVREE; (GER.) PFEFFER- 
MUNZE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE PLANT MENTHA PIPERITA. 
Description. — This glabrous or somewhat hairy, pungent, perennial herb, 
grows to a height of from 1 to 2 feet. Rootstock creeping, spreading, and multi- 
plying; sem suberect. Leaves ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, sharply serrate, 
acute, and rounded at the base; feéioles distinct. Inflorescence in numerously 
glomeruled, terminal and superaxillary, leafless, and at last interrupted, ovate 
spikes ; flowers small, distinctly pedicellate ; 4vacts hispid, mostly longer than the 
verticillasters, the upper linear. Calyx campanulate, naked in the throat; 4mé 
5-toothed ; éeeth hispid. Corolla 4-lobed, hardly irregular, except that the upper 
lobe, though never galeate nor concave, is broader than the others and emarginate; 
tube short, inclined. Stamens 4, included, similar and nearly equal, erect, straight, 
and distant: anthers 2-celled; cells parallel, without a thickened connective. Style 
long, exserted. 
mily of square-stalked aromatic herbs, and low 
erica by 50 genera, comprising 231 species and 
45 recognized varieties, is characterized as follows: Stems square ; leaves opposite, 
or sometimes verticillate, simple, and usually dotted with immersed glands filled 
with volatile oil; s#ipudes none. Inflorescence thyrsoidal; the general evolution of 
the clusters in the axils of leaves or primary bracts centripetal; that of the cymes — 
or glomerules centrifugal; the leaves being opposite and the clusters nearly or — 
Labiate. — This large fa 
shrubs, represented in North Am 
quite sessile, a whorl-like appearance is made (verticillaster); flowers perfect; 
hypogynous disk usually present, or represented by 1 or 4 gland-like lobes. Calyx 
tubular, gamosepalous. Corolla irregular and more or less bilabiate ; Zodes imbri- — 
cated in the bud, the posterior or upper exterior, the middle lower innermost. 
Stamens didynamous or diandrous, 
ine changed into one of these plants. 
: * Mie, Minthe, daughter of Cocytus, whom, through jealousy, : 
borne upon the tube of the corolla, distinct or oe 
