220 



MINOR 



MINT 



every fish in the stream. Minnows have the 

 peculiar haliit of arranging themselves like the 

 siMiki of a wheel or the )>etaU of a Mower, with 

 tlirir heads towards the centre ami their tails at 

 nearly ci|ual distance-, from one another when any- 

 thing that can serve as food is thrown into the 

 water. They may be caught hy small hand -net 

 or hy hook ami line, baited with worm or paste. 

 They are very prolific : they hreeil in June, aiul the 

 tggs hatch in it few days. Ax food they are much 

 esteemed, cooked in various ways or dressed as 

 ' white bait.' They are used as lit for eels, or a.-. 

 spinning bait for trout, |wrch, pike, or chilli. Some 

 fish breeders advocate stocking rivers with minnows 

 to feed the young salmon, lint the wisdom of this 

 proceeding has l>ecn i|iie-lioned on various grounds. 



Minor is, in Scotch law, the term describing a 

 person who, if a male, is lietween the ages of 14 

 and 21 ; and if a female, is lietween 12 and 21. In 

 England the technical term is an Infant (q.v.). 



Minor. See SCALE. 



Minor Barons. See BARON. 



Minorca, the second largest of the Balearic 

 Isles (|.v. ), lies 'J."> miles N }'.. of Majorca. It is 

 28 miles Ion;;, hy an average of 10 wide, and has 

 an area of 2S4 sc|. m. Pop. 34,173. Its coast in 

 rocky and inaccessible, hut broken by numerous 

 inlets, and its surface low, undulating, and stony. 

 Its productions and climate are similar to thu-e <>i 

 Majorca, though the soil is less fertile. Tin 1 chief 

 towns are Port Mahon (n.v.) am) Ciudadela (8000). 

 The island is remarkable for its great number of 

 ancient mcgalithic remains (called talayots) and its 

 stalactite cavea (at I'rella). See BVNG (JoHN); 

 Bid wdl'aJfefeorfe/te( 1876), and Sir K. L. I'hiy- 

 fair, Meililerranean (3d ed. 1890, Murray's Guide- 

 book series). 



Minorites. See FRANCISCANS. 



Minority. See REPRESENTATION. 



Minos the name of two mythological kings of 

 Crete. The first is said to have been the son of 

 /ci,s and Kuropa, the brother of Kliadamantlius, 

 the father of Deucalion ami Ariadne, and, after his 

 death, a judge of the shades in Hades. The second 

 of the same name wits grandson of the former, and 

 son of Lycastus and Ida. To him the celebrated 

 Laws of Minos are ascribed, in which he is said 

 to have received instruction from Zeus himself. 

 Homer and Hesiod know of only one Minos, the 

 king of Cno&sus, and son and friend of Zeus. 



Minotlllir, one of the most repulsive conceptions 

 of (ireek Mythology, the offspring of Pasiphac and a 

 bull, for which she had conceive. I :i passion, grati- 

 fied til rough the contrivance of I'oseidon. The >jucen 

 placeil herself in an artificial cow made by DwUllM, 

 and so Kccanie the mother of the monster, half man 

 half-bull, a man with a bull's head. Minos, the 

 husband of Pasiphae, shut him up in the fnossian 

 Labyrinth, and there fed him with the seven 

 youths ami seven maidens, whom Athens was 

 obliged to supply at fixed periods as a tribute, 

 till Theseus, with the help of Ariadne (q.v.), slew 

 the monster. 



llini|iii<-rs. See CIIAXXKI. ISLANDS, JERSEY. 



Minsk, chief town of a Russian government, 

 stands on an nflluent of the Iteresina, ,'{.'11 miles by 

 rail KNK. <if Warsaw. I'<ip. (I8!3) 80,070, many 

 of whom are .lews. The town existed in the lltn 

 century ; was Lithuanian in the 13th ami I'olish in 

 the 15th; and was annexed by Uussia in IT! 1 .'!. 

 The government of Minsk has an area of 35,282 

 n|. in., and a pop. (189.5) of 1 ,!IU3,47*>, embracing 

 White Ku~-i.ii]-- (67 per cent.), Lithuanians (4$ 

 Jicrcent.), Poles (11 jwr cent.), anil Jews (10 |>er 

 cent.), with Tartars and German*. Seventy per 

 cent, of the soil U covered with marshes, swamps, 



moors, lakes, and fore-is ; less than 24 per cent. 

 of the total area is actually cultivated. 



Mill>t>r (I.at. inniinnlrriuin, 'a monastery'), 

 the church of an abbey or priory ; but often 

 applied, like the German Minmtrr, to cathedial 

 churches without any monastic connection, aa 

 especially to York Minster. 



Mint ( Mr nt ha ), a genus of plants, of the natural 

 order Labiatn*, with small, funnel shaped, (juadrilid, 

 generally red corolla, and four straight stamens. 

 The species are perennial herbaceous plants, vary- 

 ing considerably in appearance, but all with creep- 

 ing root-stocks. The Mowers are whorled, the 

 whorls often grouped in spikes or heads. The 

 species are widely distributed over the world. 

 Some of them arc very common in Itritain, as 

 \\ater Mint (M. aquatint), which grows in wet 

 grounds and ditches, and Corn-mint (M. iin-msii), 

 which abounds as a weed in cornfields and gardens. 

 All the species contain an aromatic essential oil. in 



virtue of which they are more or lc-s i licinal. 



The most important species are Spearmint. Pepper- 

 mint, and Pennyroyal. Spearmint or Green Mint 

 (M. viridit) is a native of almost all the temperate 

 parts of the glolie ; 

 it has erect smooth 

 steins, from one foot 

 to two feet high, 

 with the whorls of 

 Mowers in loose cylin- 

 drical or oblong 

 spikes at the top; 

 the leaves lanceo- 

 late, acute, smooth, 

 serrated, destitute 

 of stalk, or nearly 

 so. It has a very 

 agreeable odour. 

 Peppermint (M. 

 jri/ierita), a plant of 

 equally wide distri- 

 bution in the tem- 

 perate part of the 

 world, is very similar 

 to spearmint, but 

 has the leaves 

 -talked, and the 

 Mowers in short 

 spikes, the lower 

 whorls somewhat 

 distant from the rest It is very readily recog- 

 nised by the |HTiiliar pungency of its odour and 

 of its taste. Pennyroyal (Hf. jnilriiiuin), also 

 \er\ cosmopolitan, has a much-branched prostrate 

 stem, whicli sends down new roots as it extends 

 in length; the leaves ovate, stalked; the Mowers 

 in distant gloUise whorls. Its smell resembles that 

 of the other mints. All these s|-cies, in a wild 

 state, grow in ditches or wet places. All of them 

 are cultivated in gardens; and |<eppennint largely 

 for medicinal use and for flavouring lozenges. 

 They are naturalised in America, where, however, 

 the common species is M. ruiititlcnsis, the \Vild 

 or Horse-mint. Mutt ,sVirv is generally mad a 

 of spearmint, which is also used for flavouring 

 soups. \c. A kind of mint with lemon-scented 

 leaves, called Itergamot Mint (M. ritniln), is found 

 in some parts of Kuropc, and is cultivated in 

 gardens. Varieties of peppermint and Horse-mint 

 (M. tylvestri*), with crisjted leaves, are much cul- 

 tivated in Germany under the name of furled 

 Mint ( Krniixr utilize. ) ; the leaves are dried and 

 used as a domestic medicine, and in poultices 

 and baths. All kinds of mint are easily propa- 

 gated by parting the roots or by cuttings. It is 

 said that mice have a great aversion to mint, and 

 that a few leaven of it will keep them at a distance. 



Spearmint (Mentka ri'rtWu). 



