A SECOND OHIO WEED MANUAL 



351 



MINT FAMILY, LABIA TVE. 



255 Peppermint (P) * Mentha piperita L. and 256 Spearmint (P) * Mentha 

 spicata L., are two well known plants, prefering to grow in moist places, yet 

 capable of growing wherever planted. The peppermint has a pungent, agreeable 

 smell and taste, while the spearmint has a sickening taste. Both spread freely 

 as do many of the plants of this family, by underground stems, any piece of 

 which propagates a new cluster of plants. My attention has recently been 

 called to bottom fields overrun with spearmint. Once thus infested the reclaim- 

 ing is difficult as is well shown where areas have been seeded to peppermint for 

 oil production. Certainly these two mints should be restricted and their spread 

 prevented by hoe and salt or by other efficient means. Neglect of a small tract 

 may mean the surrender of a large area in later years. 



257 Water=horehound, Bugleweed (P) Lycopus spp. These are weeds of 

 wet places; they have square and even sharply angled stems and more or less 

 cut or saw-toothed leaves. Unsightly plants along ditches, they call for frequent 

 mowing. 



258 Pennyroyal (A) Hedeoma ptilegioides (L.) Pers. Is a low, branching, 

 hairy weed, growing commonly in the shade of stumps and fences. The leaves 

 are small and pleasantly aromatic. This little plant sometimes overruns 

 pastures and field borders. Fire can, perhaps, well be used to destroy dead 

 plants and seeds in the fall. The seeds are small, ovoid, 1-32 inch long and 

 frequent in red clover seed. 



259 Basil, Calamint (P) *Clinopodium vulgare D. Is an erect, hairy plant, 

 1 to 2 feet high, with egg-shaped leaves and pale purple flowers appearing in 

 globular clusters. This grow r s abundantly in field borders and by roadsides, 

 graduall}' becoming introduced from the west. To be cleaned out annually. 



260 Catnip (P) *Nepeta Cataria L. Is a very common, upright branching 

 mint with deeply scalloped leaves, whitish underneath. Seeds like those of all 

 mints, in clusters of about four, brown, with two rather straight and one. larger 

 curved side, about 1-20 inch long, having two distinct white parts to the scar 

 near one end of the seed. Killed out by digging or close hoeing. 



261 Ground Ivy, Gill (P) *Glecoma hederacea L. A very pretty creeping 

 or trailing plant, with round, kidney-shaped, scal- 

 loped leaves and reddish-blue flowers, see Fig. 48. 

 This forms a dense growth of leaves and stems above, 

 and stems below the surface of the ground, occupying 

 it to the exclusion of better plants; another of the 

 cultivated pretty flowers which prove almost impossi- 

 ble to kill out where well established. There can be 

 no doubt as to its ranking among the very worst 

 weeds and it is rapidly becoming prevalent in fields 



and by roadsides. 



Seeds brown, re- 

 sembling those of cat- 

 nip, about the same 

 size but with more of 

 the grape-seed ap- 

 pearance about them, 

 apparently not found 

 in large numbers. 

 The seed is shown 

 natural size, Fig 48 

 Pig. 18. (.round-ivy. a, enlarged six times 



