22S FAMILY HERBAL. 



The whole plant is used, fresh or dried, and is 

 excellent against disorders of the stomach. It 

 will stop vomiting, and create an appetite ; it is 

 best given in the simple distilled water, well made, 

 or else in the form of tea. The fresh herb bruised, 

 and applied outwardly to the stomach, will stop 

 vomitings. 



Water Mint. Mintha aquatica. 



A common wild plant of the mint kind, not 

 so much regarded as it deserves. It is frequent 

 by ditch sides. It is a foot and half high. The 

 stalks are .square, upright, firm, and strong, and 

 generally of a brown colour ; the leaves are broad 

 and short ; they stand two at a joint, and are of a 

 brownish or deep green colour, somewhat hairy, 

 and serrated about the edges. The flowers are 

 larger than those of common mint, and are of a 

 pale red colour ; they stand in round thick clus- 

 ters at the tops of the stalks, and round the up- 

 per joints. The whole plant has a strong smell, 

 not disagreeable, but of a mixed kind between 

 tint of mint, and penny royal : and the taste is 

 strong and acrid, but it is not to be called disagree- 

 able. 



A distilled water of this plant is excellent against 

 colics, pains in the stomach and bowels, and it will 

 bring down the menses. A single dose of it often 

 cures the colic. The use of peppermint has ex- 

 cluded this kind from the present practice, but 

 nil three ought to be used. Where a simple weak- 

 ness of the stomach is the complaint, the common 

 mint should be used ; when coliey pains alone, 

 tli" peppermint ; and where suppressions of the 

 n*<ViM\s are in the ease, this wild water mint : they 

 uv all be given in the way of tea, but a simple 



