SOLANACEAE NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 



713 



Mentha (Tourn.) L. Mint 



Herbs with the odor of mint. Leaves usually with punctate spots; flowers 

 small in whorled clusters, pink or white; calyx bell-shaped or tubular, 5-toothed; 

 corolla tube shorter than the calyx; limb 4-cleft; stamens equal, erect, included 

 or exserted; filaments smooth; nutlets ovoid, smooth. About 30 species of 

 temperate regions. Our native species (M. arvensis, var. canadensis) is com- 

 mon in low marshy ground. 



Mentha crispa contains linacol, C 10 H lg O, one of the terpenes. It may be 

 mentioned in passing that this same substance recurs in Ocimum Thymus and 

 Darwinia. A ketone-carbon, C 1Q H 14 O. is found in several species of the genus. 





Mentha piperita L. Peppermint 



Smooth, erect, perennial herb with creeping rootstocks from 1-2 feet high; 

 leaves petioled, ovate, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acute and sharply serrate ; 

 flowers whorled in interrupted loose, leafless spikes ; purplish or whitish. 



Distribution. Commonly escaped from cultivation and troublesome in the 

 East. 



Fig. 413. Peppermint 

 (Mentha piperita). One of 

 the sources of the pepper- 

 mint of commerce. (From 

 Vesque's Traite de Botani- 

 que). 



Fig. 414. Tomato (Lycopersicum es- 

 culentum). An important food plant. 

 (W. S. Dudgeon). 



SOLANACEAE. Nightshade Family 



Herbs, rarely shrubs, vines ; a few of the tropical species, trees with alter- 

 nate leaves without stipules ; flowers regular or nearly so, borne in cymes ; 

 calyx inferior, S-lobed; corolla gamopetalous, generally 5-lobed; stamens as 

 many as the lobes of the corolla and alternate with them, inserted on the tube, 

 generally equal ; style and stigma 1 ; ovules numerous ; fruit a berry or cap- 

 sule. A large family, chiefly tropical, consisting of 70 genera and 1600 species. 

 Several of these are important medicinal plants and several important food 

 plants. Many plants of the order have poisonous properties. 



