CULINARY HERBS II9 



vegetable will seem like a new dish of unusual deli- 

 cacy. The potatoes may be either served whole or 

 mashed with a little butter, milk and pepper. 



Pennyroyal (Mentha Pulegium, Linn. ) , a perennial 

 herb of the natural order Labiatse, native of Europe 

 and parts of Asia, found wild and naturalized 

 throughout the civilized world in stronig, moist soil 

 on the borders of ponds and streams./ Its square, 

 prostrate stems, which readily take root at the 

 nodes, bear roundish-oval, grayish-green, slightly 

 hairy leaves and small lilac-blue flowers in whorled 

 clusters of ten or a dozen, rising in tiers, one above 

 another, at the nodes. The seed is light brown, oval 

 and very small. Like most of its near relatives, penny- 

 royal is highly aromatic, perhaps even more so than any 

 other mint. The flavor is more pungent and acrid and 

 less agreeable than that of spearmint or peppermint.?; 



Ordinarily the plant is propagated by division like 

 mint, or more rarely by cuttings. Cultivation is the 

 same as that of mint. Plantations generally last 

 for four or five years, and even longer, when well 

 managed and on favorable soil.' In England it is 

 more extensively cultivated than in America for 

 drying and for its oil, of which latter a yield of 12 

 pounds to the acre is considered good. The leaves, 

 green or dried, are used abroad to flavor puddings and 

 other culinary preparations, but the taste and odor are 

 usually not pleasant to American and English pal- 

 ates and noses. 



Peppermint (Mentha piperita, Linn.) is much the 

 same in habit of growth as spearmint. It is a native 

 of northern Europe, where it may be found in moist 



