362 LABIATAE (MINT FAMILY) 
Stems one to three feet tall, often tinged with reddish purple, 
smooth, square, erect and branching. Leaves dark green, lance- 
shaped, about half as wide as long, sharply toothed, smooth on 
both sides except that the veins beneath are slightly hairy, pointed 
at tip, rounded or narrowed at base to a short petiole. Flowers in 
terminal spikes, obtuse at tip, densely whorled or sometimes in- 
terrupted, purple, rather showy; calyx smooth at base but with 
nearly equal hairy teeth; corolla with upper lip entire and lower 
lip three-lobed; the four stamens, equal, erect and included; 
style two-cleft at summit. Nutlets four in each calyx, ovoid and 
smooth. (Fig. 252.) 
Means of control 
A peppermint patch is about as difficult to clean out as is one 
of Quack Grass, for the rootstocks must all be removed from the 
soil or starved to death. In the one case, this means very diligent 
use of grubbing hoe and rake; in the other, such close and fre- 
quent cutting as to allow no green leaves to 
appear throughout the growing season. 
SPEARMINT 
Méntha spicata, L. 
Other English names: Lamb Mint, Mackerel 
Mint, Garden Mint, Our Lady’s Mint, Sage 
of Bethlehem. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds 
and by stolons. : 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: August to November. 
Range: Nova Scotia to Ontario and Minne- 
sota, southward to Florida and Kansas. 
Habitat: Moist ground; fields and waste places. 
Like the preceding species this mint is cul- 
tivated for the distillation of its oil, which has 
a milder flavor and action than that of Pepper- 
ie es anges! mint. Stems ten to twenty inches high, nearly 
mint (Mendin. “ape smooth, erect, square, branching. Leaves lance- 
cata). Xt}. shaped, unequally toothed, the surface some- 
