SWEET FENNEL 



Corolla. — Tubular, border four-cleft, upper lobe broadest. 



Stamens. — Four, equal, erect. 



Ovary.— Four-parted; developing into four seed-like akenes. 



Spearmint has virtues which have 

 long been recognized. The French 

 call it Menthe de Notre Dame, the 

 Italians Erba Santa Maria, and the 

 Germans Frauen Minze. In the 

 Middle Ages it was a charm against 

 the bite of serpents, scorpions, and 

 mad dogs. Its culinary uses were to 

 assist in the making of cheese, to be 

 put with pennyroyal into puddings, 

 and also to be boiled with green peas. 

 That use still survives in England. 

 Spearmint ■ is also cultivated on pep- 

 permint farms and the plants distilled for their essential oil. 

 This is used chiefly in medicine. 



Spearmint is a crop in the vicinity of large cities, where freshly 

 cut sprigs are used in making the "seductive and intoxicating 

 drink known as mint-julep." It is more widely used as an in- 

 gredient in mint sauce, the familiar accompaniment of spring 

 lamb. 



Spearmint. Minlha viridis 



SWEET FENNEL 



Faniculum vulgare. 



Fcsniculum, Latin, from fcenum, hay; referring to the odor which 

 suggests that of new-mown hay. 



Biennial; foliage and fruit sweet, aromatic, medicinal, and stimu- 

 lating. 



Stem. — Stout, smooth, four to six feet high. 



Leaves. — Numerous, three to four times pinnate, spread out into 

 finely cut and almost hair-like segments. 



Flowers. — Bright-yellow, in an umbel of ten to twenty rays, without 

 involucre. 



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