20 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



Fig. 1.— Peppermint ''runners," showing method of 

 propagation. 



The two varieties mentioned are closely related botanically, al- 

 though in general appear- 

 ance they are quite differ- 

 ent. The variety known 

 as black mint {Mentha 

 piperita vulgaris) has pur- 

 ple stems and slightly 

 toothed, dark-green leaves, 

 while the white mint 

 (Mentha piperita offici- 

 nalis) has green stems, 

 with brighter green leaves, 

 which are more lance- 

 shaped and more deeply 

 toothed. Black mint is much more hardy and productive than either 

 the American mint or the white mint, 

 and is grown on nearly all pepper- 

 mint farms in this country. The white 

 mint, which produces a fine grade 

 of oil, is rarely cultivated on a com- 

 mercial scale in this country on ac- 

 count of its inability to withstand the 

 climate and its smaller yield of essen- 

 tial oil. 



The oils spoken of as Japanese and 

 Chinese " peppermint " oils are not ob- 

 tained from the true peppermint plant, 

 but are distilled from entirely different 

 species, namely, Mentha arvensis piper- 

 ascens Malinvaud and Mentha arvensis 

 glaorata Holmes, respectively. 



COUNTRIES WHERE GROWN. 



The most important peppermint - 

 producing countries are the United 

 States, England, and Japan. Pepper- 

 mint is grown on a smaller scale in 

 Germany, France, Italy, Russia, China, 

 and southern India. 



In Japan, peppermint cultivation 

 is said to have been undertaken 

 before the Christian era. The plant 

 grown there is not, as already 

 stated, the peppermint cultivated in 

 our country, but Mentha arvensis piperascens, which is entirely dis 



Fig 



Leaves and flowering top of 

 peppermint. 



