LABIATE. 



Labiate Plants. 



No. 54. 

 MENTHA PIPERITA. 



PEPPERMINT. 



Geog, Position. Europe. 

 Quality. Penetrating, grateful. 

 Power. Stomachic, stimulant. 



Use. Nausea, griping, flatulent colic, to disguise the un- 

 pleasant taste of other medicines. 



BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. 



Natural Classification. 



ORDER LABIATE. 



Linncean Classification. 



CLASS XIV. Didynamia. ORDER Gymnospermia. 



AUTHORITIES. Willd. Sp. PL III. 74. Woodv. Med. Bot. 336. Lind. Flor 

 Med. 487. Raf. Med. Flor. II. 242. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 116. Lond. Disp. 439. 

 U. S. Disp. 475. EC. Disp. U. S. 261 . Loud. Encyc. PI. 500. Ballard and Garrod, 

 Mat. Med. 355. Thomson, Mat. Med. *104. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 288. Griff. 

 Med. Bot. 502. Carson, Illust. Med. Bot. IL 16. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 840. 

 Beach, Fam. Ph. 6G3. Howard, Bot. Med. 269. Kost, Mat. Med. 329. Wood, 

 Class-Book, 416. 



GENUS MENTHA. 



Miv&a or ( iV#77, in old Greek. The Poets feign that Mintha was a 'daughter of 

 Cocytus, transformed into the plant which bears her name ; an allegorical descrip- 

 tion of the terrible effects ascribed to the plant by the ancients. 



SYNONYMES. Menthe poivree (Fr.), Pfeffermunze (Ger.), Peperminte (Dutch), 

 Peparmynta (Swed.), Menta Piperita (It), Verbal nina de saper de Pimienta (Sp.), 

 Hortelaa apimentada (Port.). 



THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS. 



CALYX. Tubular, regularly five-toothed or cleft or bilabiate, 

 persistent. 



COROLLA. Bilabiate (rarely regular, five-toothed), the upper 

 lip bifid or entire, overlapping in aestivation the lower three- 

 cleft one. 



STAMENS. Four, didynamous, or sometimes only two, the 



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