SOO MENTHA. [class XIV. ORDER I. 



tender tops are also used in Spring salads, and the whole plant retains 

 its properties when dried, and is thus kept for winter uses. For 

 medical purposes Spear Mint is esteemed as a stomachic and carmi- 

 native, and is used in the form of infusion, or the distilled water in 

 relieving vomiting, spasms, &c. of the stomach. 



4. M. piperi'ta, Smith. (Fig. 916.) Peppermint. Stem erect; 

 leaves petiolated, ovate lanceolate or oblong, serrated ; spikes oblong, 

 cylindrical, obtuse, interrupted; bracteas lanceolate; calyx furrowed, 

 smooth at the base, the teeth lanceolate. 



English Flora, vol. iii. p. 77. — Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. 

 p. 227. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 199. 



a. Officinalis, Lind. " Leaves ovate lanceolate ; spikes elongated." 

 —English Botany, t. 687. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 77. 



j3. Ovaia, Lind. " Spikes shorter and blunter, almost capitate." — 

 English Flora, vol. iii. p. 78. 



y, hircina, Lind. " Leaves ovate, slightly heart-shaped ; spikes 

 more acute." — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 78. 



Hoot fibrous, with long creeping suckers. Stem erect, from two to 

 three feet high, simple or branched, square, roughish, with short recurved 

 hairs. Leaves opposite, all on footstalks, lanceolate, ovate, or oblong, 

 with a more or less acute point, the margin strongly serrated, a dark 

 green, and nearly smooth above, paler and rougher beneath. Inflo- 

 rescence terminal spikes, the whorls more or less distant, and leafy 

 below, bracteas lanceolate, fringed. Calyx on nearly smooth stalks, 

 slender, furrowed, dotted with glands, the teeth lanceolate, awl-shaped, 

 fringed with hairs, and mostly a purplish colour. Corolla about as 

 long again as the calyx, a darkish purple colour. Stamens shorter 

 than the corolla. Style slender, protruding. 



Habitat. — Watery places in various parts of England ; Alford, 

 Aberdeenshire, North Q,ueensferry, Scotland ; banks of the Lake 

 Furnham, near Newtownlimavady, and Banks of the Lee, near 

 Carrigrshan Castle, Ireland. 



Perennial ; flowering in August and September. 



Peppermint has long been cultivated for the warm aromatic pro- 

 perties which it possesses; and is esteemed more as a medicinal plant 

 than for culinary purposes. It has a strong penetrating odour, some- 

 what resembling camphor, and has a very warm pungent slightly bitter 

 taste, which is succeeded by a cold sensation in the mouth. These 

 qualities are imparted to water, and by distillation a volatile oil is 

 procured of a yellow colour, and holds camphor in solution ; but 

 according to Thompson's Organic Chemistry, p. 473, no European oil 

 yields camphor, while that from America yields crystals when cooled 

 down, which Dumas has shown to differ from camphor, merely by con- 

 taining two additional atoms of hydrogen. Medicinally, Peppermint 

 is used as an antispasmodic and carminative, and is beneficially given 

 in nausea and griping, hysterical affections, flatulency, &c., and it is 

 also used as a vehicle to disguise the taste of other medicines. The 



