38 LABIATE 



planted for its essential oil, Avhich is used in lozenges and other confectionery, 

 and so largely emploj^'ed for mediciiial purposes. Its stem and leaves are 

 nearly smooth, and the spikes of purplish-lilac flowers appear in August and 

 September. Its scent is much stronger than that of the Spearmint. Its 

 essential oil exists in minute glands on the calyx and leaves, which are 

 usually apparent to the naked eye. Nyman is of opinion that it exists 

 nowhere as an indigenous plant, and many regard it as a mere cultivated 

 form of M. aquatim. 



5. Water Capitate Mint (M. aqudtica). — Leaves stalked, egg-shaped, 

 serrated, rounded or slightly heart-shaped below, uppermost leaves like 

 bracts, and shorter than the flowers ; flowers at the summit of the stem 

 in dense whorls, the highest forming a head, and sometimes also growing in 

 axillary remote whorls ; calyx tubular ; perennial. Several varieties of this 

 Mint occur, in one of which the leaves are cut, toothed, and crisped ; while 

 in another the leaves, calyx, and flower-stalks, are quite smooth. We have 

 often thought, when, in August and September, we have seen the rounded 

 heads of pale bluish-lilac flowers of this Mint peeping up from among the 

 shallow waters, or clustering on some little islet of the stream, that it far 

 outrivals most of its family in beaut}". Its flowers are of a Muer tint than 

 any other species ; its leaves are downy, and in wet places, where it luxuriates, 

 it often forms large masses one or two feet high. It is the commonest of all 

 the Mints, and were it not for its strong and unpleasant odour, Avould be a 

 good addition to the wild-flower nosegay of autumn. This odour, however, 

 has its uses, for Dr. Johnston tells us, in his "Flora of Berwick-on-Tweed," 

 that Mr. Macdonald of Scalpa in the Hebrides, having had much injury done 

 to his wheat by the depredations of mice, gathered a quantity of this plant 

 from a neighbouring brook, and placed it among his wheatsheaves, after 

 which they remained untouched by these animals. He then put the Mint 

 with cheese and other articles, then in store, which had formerly been much 

 injured by mice, and found the plan successful, the Mint, both in its fresh 

 and dry states, efliectuallj'- repelling the intruders. There are several varietal 

 forms of this species, distinguished in most cases by the amount of hairiness 

 or downiness of the leaves. 



* * Flowers in axillary, distant whorls. 



6. Marsh Whorled Mint (ilf. sativa). — Leaves stalked, egg-shaped or 

 elliptical, serrated, iipper ones similar but smaller, all longer than the whorls , 

 whorls all distant, dense ; calyx with lanceolate sharply-pointed teeth. This 

 plant is subject to great changes, being in various forms more or less hairy. 

 The authors of the "British Flora" remark of the Mints in general: — 

 " Nearly all the species are hairy, with serrated leaves, but are subject to two 

 principal variations, viz. to be almost entirely smooth, in which case the 

 flower-stalks and lower part of the calyx become quite smooth, and the odour 

 of the species is milder and even pleasant ; and to have the leaves cut and 

 crisped. This latter is more strictly a monstrosity, and is sometimes 

 accompanied with a considerable change in the inflorescence."' The Marsh 

 Whorled Mint grows on the banks of rivers or moist hedge-banks, and in 

 copses. It has distant whorls of numerous reddish-lilac flowers, which 



