CONCERNING CAT-MINT 77 



Physic-garden, surrounded as it is with houses, 

 vagrant cats would soon destroy the Herb alto- 

 gether if it were not protected by barricades. 



' If you set it, the cats will eate it ; 

 If you sow it, the cats won't know it.' 



This old rhyme is all very well, but the cats 

 would know it as soon as it was up. They roll 

 in it, browse on it, and cannot leave it alone. 

 Rats, on the other hand, dislike the plant par- 

 ticularly, and will not approach it even when 

 driven by hunger. 



'If the green Herb (not the dry) be boiled in 

 wine, and the face washed with it, blue and black 

 marks will disappear, and black scars will become 

 well coloured.' This is the advice of an old 

 herbalist, who, if he did not claim so many other 

 virtues for this Herb, would be more worthy of 

 credence as to this one. 



Cat-Mint, by the way, does not demand moisture 

 in the same way as the other Mints. It will grow 

 on heaths and uplands, and make itself quite happy 

 among plants in the rock-garden. The wild form 

 of the Herb is known about the country-side as 

 Calamint. 



Mint has been called in France Menthe de Notre 

 Dame, in Italy Erba Santa Maria, and in Germany 

 Frauen Munze. In the days when the floors of 



