480 LABIATE. 



Mentha viridis is regarded by Benthaui as not improbably a variety 

 of M. silvestris L., pcrjietuated through its ready propagation by suckers. 

 J. G. Baker remarks, that while these two plants are sufficiently distinct 

 as found in England, yet continental forms occur which bridge over their 

 differences/ 



History — Mint is mentioned in all early mediaeval lists of plants, 

 and was certainly cultivated in the convent gardens of the 9th century. 

 Turner, who has been called " the father of English botany," states in 

 his HerhalV^ that the garden mint of his time was also called " Spere 

 Mynte." We find spearmint also described by Gerarde who tei-ms it 

 Mentha Roraana vel Sarracenica, or Common Garden Mint, but his 

 statement that the leaves are ivhite, soft, and hairy does not well apply 

 to the plant as now found in cultivation. 



Description — Spearmint has a perennial root-stock which throws 

 out long runners. Its stem 2 to 8 feet high is erect, when luxuriant 

 branched below with short erecto-patent branches, firm, quadrangular, 

 naked or slightly hairy beneath the nodes, often brightly tinged with 

 ])urple. Leaves sessile or the lower slightly stalked, lanceolate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, rounded or even cordate at the base, dark green and glabrous 

 above, paler and prominently veined with green or purple beneath, rather 

 thickly glandular, but either quite naked or hairy only on the midrib 

 and principal veins, the point narrowed out and acute, the teeth sharp 

 but neither very close nor deep, the lowest leaves measuring about 1 

 inch across by 3 or 4 inches long. Inflorescence a panicled an-ange- 

 ment of spikes, of which the main one is 3 or 4 inches long by ^ inch 

 wide, the lowest whorls sometimes l an inch from each other and the 

 lowest bracts leafy. Bracteoles linear-subulate, equalling or exceeding 

 the expanded flowers, smooth or slightly ciliated. Pedicels about f line 

 long, purplish glandular, but never hairy. Calyx also often purplish, 

 the tube campanulato-c3dindrical, ^ line long, the teeth lanceolate- 

 subulate, equalling the tube, the flower part of which is naked, but the 

 teeth and often the upper part clothed more or less densely with erecto- 

 patent hairs. Corolla reddish-purple, about twice as long as the calyx, 

 naked both within and wdthout. Not smooth. 



The plant varies slightly in the shape of its leaves, elongation of 

 spike and hairiness of calyx. The entire plant en)its a most fragrant 

 odour when rubbed, and has a pungent aromatic taste. 



Production — Spearmint is grown in kitchen gardens, and more 

 largely in market gardens. A few acres are under cultivation with it 

 at Mitcham, chiefly for the sake of the herb, which is sold mostly in a 

 dried state. 



The cultivation of spearmint is carried on in the United States in 



precisely the same manner as that of peppermint, but on a much smaller 



scale. "Mr. H. G. Hotchkiss of Lyons, Wayne County, State of New 



York, has informed us that his manufacture of the essential oil amounted 



in 1870 to 11 G2 lb. The jjlant he employs appears from the specimen 



with which he has favoured us, to be identical with the spearmint of 



English gardens, and is not the Curled Mint {Mentha crispa) of 



Germany. 



1 Seemann's Journal of Botany, Aug. ful description of Mentha viridis. 

 1865. p. 239. We borrow Mr. Baker's care- ^ p.^-t o. (15G8) 54. 



