From Blue to Purple 



chiefly. A newly opened hermaphrodite flower, male on the first 

 day, dusts its visitors as they pass the ripe stamens. This pollen 

 they carry to a flower two days old, which, having reached the 

 female stage, receives it on the mature two-cleft stigma, now 

 erect and tall, whereas the stamens are past maturity. 



Garden, Spear, or Mackerel Mint 



{Mentha spicata) Mint family 

 (M. viridis of Gray) 



Flowers — Small, pale bluish, or pinkish purple, in whorls, forming 

 terminal, interrupted, narrow spikes, 2 to 4 in. long in fruit, the 

 central one surpassing lateral ones. Calyx bell-shaped, 

 toothed; corolla tubular, 4-cleft. Stamens 4; style 2-cleft. 

 Stem: Smooth, i to i>4 ft. high, branched. Leaves: Oppo- 

 site, narrowly oblong, acute, saw-edged, aromatic. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist soil. 



Flowering Season — ^July — September. 



Distribution — Eastern half of Canada and United States. Also 

 Europe and Asia. 



The poets tell us that Proserpine, Pluto's wife, in a fit of 

 jealousy changed a hated rival into the mint plant, whose name 

 Mentha, in its Latin form, or Minthe, the Greek equivalent, is still 

 that of the metamorphosed beauty, a daughter of Cocytus, who 

 was also Pluto's wife. Proserpine certainly contrived to keep her 

 rival's memory fragrant. But how she must delight in seeing her 

 under the chopping-knife and served up as sauce! 



It is a curious fact that among the Labiates, or two-lipped blos- 

 soms to which thymes and mints belong, there very frequently 

 occur species bearing flowers that are male on the first day (stami- 

 nate) and female, or pistillate, on the second day, and also smaller 

 female flowers on distinct plants. Muller believed this plan was 

 devised to attract insects, first by the more showy hermaphrodite 

 flower, that they might carry its pollen to the less conspicuous 

 female flower, which they would naturally visit last; but this in- 

 teresting theory has yet to be proved. Nineteen species of flies, to 

 which the mints are specially adapted, have been taken in the act 

 of transferring pollen. Ten varieties of the lower hymenoptera 

 (bees, wasps, and others) commonly resort to the fragrant spikes 

 of bloom. 



Peppermint (M. piperita), similar in manner of growth to the 

 preceding, is another importation from Europe now thoroughly 

 at home here in wet soil. The volatile oil obtained by distilling 



4 49 



