MENTHA PIPERITA. 



the plant be cut in wet weather it changes to black and is 

 little worth. 



The root of the plant is creeping ; the stem quadrangular 

 and channelled, nearly upright, and about two feet high, 

 branching, purplish, and rather hairy with the hairs bent back- 

 wards. The leaves are of a dark-green color, opposite, peti- 

 olate, ovate, rather pointed, serrated, the upper side smoother 

 and less pubescent than the under, which is paler with white 

 and purple veins. The flowers are in terminal spikes, solitary, 

 almost capitate, interrupted beneath, with the lower whorl 

 more remote, and on a footstalk. The bracts are lanceolate 

 and ciliated. The calyx is furrowed, tender, studded with 

 glandular points. The base entirely naked, very smooth and 

 five-cleft, with the teeth of a blackish purple color, ciliated. 

 The corolla is purple, and conceals within its tube the anthers, 

 which are on short filaments. The germen is four-cleft, with 

 a filiform style longer than the corolla, and furnished with a 

 bifid stigma. The four-cleft germ is converted into four seeds, 

 lodged in the calyx. 



Sir J. E. Smith supposes that this plant was* discovered -by 

 Dr. Eales, and says that what is called Peppermint in the 

 North of Europe is merely a variety of^Mentha hirsuta, hav- 

 ing a similar odor, and is the Mentha piperita of the Linnaean 

 herbarium. 



CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 



The whole plant is officinal. The odor of both the recent 

 and dried plant is peculiar and well known, aromatic, pene- 

 trating, and grateful, in some degree resembling camphor ; and 

 the taste pungent, warm, glowing, and bitterish, followed by 

 a sensation of coldness when air is drawn into the mouth. It 

 gives out its properties to alcohol and partly to water. It con- 

 tains volatile oil, a bitter principle, resin, tannic acid, and woody 

 fibre. The oil can be obtained separate by distillation. It is 

 colorless, but becomes yellowish or even reddish by age. It 

 has a powerful aromatic odor, and an extremely pungent taste. 

 The camphor it contains is isomeric with the oil. 



Peppermint is employed in medicine for several purposes. 

 It is stomachic, stimulant, antispasmodic, and carminative. 

 It is chiefly used to allay nausea and griping, to relieve flatu- 

 lent colic, and in hysteria ; or as a vehicle to cover the nause- 

 ous taste of other medicines. It is, however, to many palates 

 extremely disagreeable. The fresh herb, bruised and applied 

 over the epigastrium, often allays sick stomach, and is 



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