Chapter XXXVII. 



From Peppermints to Plantains. 

 if 



The mint family in Minnesota includes about forty species, 

 among which are the pennyroyals, mints, peppermints, bugle- 

 weeds, basils, calamints, horse- 

 mints or bergamots, Blephilias, 

 catnips, anise plants, hyssops, 

 dragon's-heads, skull- caps, 

 hedge-nettles and dead-net- 

 tles. 



Mints may be recognized by 

 characters as follows: Their 

 stems are almost always four- 

 sided with opposite leaves and 

 aromatic foliage. The flowers 

 are usually strongly two- 

 \ lipped, though in some Minne- 

 sota varieties they are nearly 

 regular. The stamens, borne 

 on the inner surface of the 

 corolla tube, are generally four 

 in number, two of them longer 



than the other two; but sometimes the short ones become 

 reduced to thread-like appendages. The fruit, as in borages 

 and verbenas, consists of four one-seeded nutlets. It is almost 

 always possible to identify a mint by rubbing a little of the 

 foliage between the fingers and noticing the fragrant odor, like 

 that of catnip or peppermint. The presence of the scent, even 

 if the flowers are regular instead of two-lipped, will serve to 

 indicate the mint, especially if its stem is four-sided. 



Wood-sages. Among the mints some varieties may be iden- 

 tified by characters not too minute. The wood-sages and 



FIG. 178. Wild mint. Aftei Briitou and 

 Brown. 



