114 



MINT. MENTHA. 



HAIRY MINT. Mentha hirsuta. 



Plate 8, jig. 8. 



This is the only Mint which is really common ; it is found 

 almost everywhere on river banks, and in ditches, bearing its 

 flowers in very thick whirls at the top of and down the stem, in 

 the axils of the three or four upper pair of leaves. Flowers 

 pinkish-purple. Stamens longer than the corolla. Leaves 

 ovate, hairy, serrated, dark green, very generally tinged with 

 red or purple. Calyx hairy, with the hairs bent upwards. 

 Stem hairy, with the hairs bent downwards. The plant varies 

 much in size from a foot to three feet high, flowering in August 

 and September. The whole plant smells very strongly like 

 Peppermint. 



O. S. Horse Mint, Round-leaved Mint, Spear Mint, which is so common 

 in gardens, and used to eat with peas, lamb, &c. ; Peppermint which yields 

 a fine and fragrant oil, and which oil is extracted thus : The plants are 

 first soaked in water for about a week, which softens the skins of the leaves 

 and the little bags that contain the oil. They are then put into a still with 

 salt water, and this being heated, the steam rises, and carries with it the 

 oil of the plants. The steam is now condensed by passing through a cold 

 copper or leaden vessel, and thus the oil which has passed over with the 

 water settles, and is taken care of. In the same way other vegetable oils 

 are made, as oil of Lavender. For example, a tea-spoonful, added to a 

 pint of spirits of wine, makes very excellent Lavender water ; or returning 

 again to the Peppermint, the same quantity added to a pound of melted 

 loaf sugar, and then suffered to fall a drop at a time on to a marble slab, 

 or a sheet of paper first rubbed with sweet oil, makes a like quantity of 

 superfine Peppermint drops. The other British species of Mint are the 

 Bergamot Mint, the Sharp-leaved Mint, the Tall Red Mint, the Bushy Red 

 Mint, the Narrow-leaved Mint, the Corn Mint, the Rugged Field Mint, and 

 the Penny-royal, 



MARJORAM. ORIGANUM. 



COMMON MARJORAM. Origanum vulgare. 



Plate 8, fig. 9. 



Common only in dry chalky places, bearing its small red 

 pretty flowers which open in July, in large branched up- 

 right heads, that look like a large bunch all of flowers. These 

 flowers have not merely a calyx to defend them, but a number 

 of bracts or little leaves which fold over each other, sometimes 

 green, but more often tinged with purple. Leaves ovate, 

 blunt, some of them shortly stalked and entire. It grows 

 about a foot high, and now and then bears white flowers ; is 



