36 LABIAT.E 



Mint, Mackerel Mint, Curled Mint, Holy Blackish Mint, Heart Mint, Red 

 Mint, Fish Mint, and Brook Mint, besides some which, like Horse Mint, are 

 yet known by their old English names. The Spearmint, as well as many 

 other species, is doubtless a powerful carminative, and the medical prepara- 

 tions made from it are much more agreeable than those obtained from the 

 Peppermint, though they are not perhaps so useful. It contains much 

 essential oil, and affords, as well as the oil, the spirit and water of mint, 

 besides that a conserve is prepared from the herb. The conserve is very 

 agreeable to those who like the flavour of Mint, and the distilled waters, 

 both simple and spirituous, are agreeable to many persons, and are useful in 

 many forms of suffering. Large quantities of Mint for the use of the druggist 

 are grown in the neighbourhood of Mitcham, in Surrey. For more than 

 a hundred years past many of the culinary, medicinal, and perfumery plants 

 have been sent up to the London market from this neighbourhood. Hundreds 

 of aci'es are covered with sweet and fragrant plants, diffusing at the season 

 of their maturity the most delicious odours. These flowery fields are not, 

 however, so lovely to the eye as an imaginative reader might suppose, for 

 the plants, cultivated for use and not for show, are mostly arranged in 

 formal rows, and are often of very low growth. Here and there a field of 

 roses or of lavender may tint the landscape with brightened hues, and, like 

 the humbler masses of Mint and Peppermint, give long and pleasant notice 

 of their neighbourhood by the odours which are wafted by the summer 

 Ijreeze. Coltsfoot, poppj^, wormwood, aniseed, 'chamomile, deadly night- 

 shade, liquorice, horehound, and other plants used by the physician, the 

 perfumer, or the maker of liqueurs, are cultivated there ; and it is said that 

 the owner of a large chamomile garden sometimes pays as much as a hundred 

 pounds in a week to the women and children who are employed to gather in 

 these medicinal flowers. 



When used for medicinal purposes, the Spearmint is cut just when the 

 flowers appear, and the herb-garden is then a very busy scene, as it is also 

 some days after, when the plant is in full flower, as that is the season for 

 gathering in Mint when it is required for the essential oil, and in both cases 

 it must be cut while the weather is dry. The south of Europe affords the 

 chief produce of perfumery herbs, and Grasse and Nice are the especial seats 

 of the art, affording as they do, by their geographical position, within short 

 distances, such changes of soil and climate as are desirable for the growth of 

 various scented plants. Thus, the grower at Nice can plant his cassia on the 

 sea-coast, fearless of those winter frosts which, in our climate, would in one 

 night destroy all the results of his industry. Nearer the Alps the climate is 

 well adapted for the culture of his violets, which yield a better odour there 

 than if reared in those warmer spots which suit so well the orange-flower 

 and mignonette. But it is to the English gardener that the druggist and 

 perfumer look for their Mint, Peppermint, and lavender ; and the essential 

 oils obtained from these herbs, when grown at Mitcham, obtain a much larger 

 price than those of the sunnier climes of France or Southern Europe, and 

 have a sweeter and more delicate odour. It has been remarked, as a general 

 observation, that though the flowers of warm climates liave usually a more 

 powerful odour, yet the more delicate fragrance is afforded by the plants of 



