WEEDS OF THE MINT FAMILY. 



123 



Notwithstanding its fragrance and its medicinal value the plant is 

 much too common in places where the blue-grass ought to grow and 

 is therefore included among this list of weeds. Remedies: in 

 pastures, mowing; burning over in autumn; in fields, increased 

 fertilization and fall plowing. 



89. 



Spearmint. Common Mint. Our Lady's Mint. 



MENTHA SPICATA L. 

 (P. I. 3.) 



Erect, branched, glabrous, 12-18 inches high, spreading by leafy run- 

 ners; leaves lanceolate, sessile or short-stalked, pointed, sharply toothed. 

 Flowers in dense whorls in narrow terminal, usually interrupted bracted 

 spikes, the bracts linear, awl-pointed, often longer than the flowers; 

 corolla regular, pale purple, 4-cleft; stamens 4. Nutlets egg-shaped, 

 smooth. 



Very common in low wet places, especially about springs and in 

 loAvland pastures along streams. June-Sept. Along the borders 

 of rippling streams, and often from the shallow water, spring the 

 stems of this lowly, pungent semi-aquatic herb and its brother the 

 peppermint. In the centuries that have gone by how many stomach- 

 aches, both of babies and mature humans 

 have their juices cured? At the base of 

 damp shady banks in old woodland pastures 

 they have their favorite abiding places. 

 There their fragrance permeates unheeded 

 the surrounding air. Do browsing cattle 

 ever suffer from the stomach-ache and find 

 relief in the juices of their stems and leaves ? 

 Both the spearmint and the peppermint 

 (M. piperita L., Fig. 87) were introduced 

 from Europe, but the former seems to be the 

 more aggressive and wide spreading. It is 

 the species used in making that well known 

 and seductive beverage of the southern 

 States known as "mint julep/' It is also 

 Fig. 87. Peppermint; a, flower; used extensively in medicine and extracts, 

 but much less so than peppermint, the latter 



being cultivated extensively in the muck soils of northern Indiana, 

 Michigan and elsewhere for its essential oil. Both spread freely 

 by underground stems which send up buds at short intervals, and 

 where too plentiful can be kept in check by hoe-cutting and salt- 

 ing, or drainage and cultivation. 



