32 WEEDS. 



shaped, small. Stem one or two feet high, branched, an- 

 gular. Leaves oblong, variously toothed, or pinnatifid, laci- 

 nated, rarely entire. Flowers large, terminal; scales of the 

 calyx with a broad membranous edge ; florets of the ray in- 

 versely heart-shaped, spreading. Seeds furrowed. 



The plant is annual, and flowers from June to October. It 

 has many provincial names : corn marigold, yellow or golden 

 corn flower, yellow bottle, huddle, or the yellow bottle in 

 Norfolk ; golds, goulds, or gowls, in the midland counties ; 

 goulans, or goldins, in the north of England, and gules, gools, 

 guils, or yellow go wans, in Scotland, from the golden colour 

 of the flowers. The seeds are very plentifully produced, 

 which vegetate whenever the land is cultivated, and may be 

 very easily destroyed, like other annual seedUng weeds, by 

 early and complete fallowing, to bring the seeds forward, and 

 then destroying the plant. The root being annual, the pro- 

 duction of seeds has only to be guarded against. 



27. The "Mint," or the " mentha" of botany, is a frequent 

 weed on moist soils. It belongs to the class and order 

 " Didynamia gymnospermia " of Linneus, and the natural 

 order " Labiatse " of Jussieu. 



"Generic character. — Calyx : perianth inferior, of one leaf, 

 tubular, erect, with five nearly equal teeth, permanent. 

 Corolla, of one petal, erect, tubular, somewhat longer than the 

 calyx ; limb in four deep, nearly equal segments, the upper- 

 most only being rather the broadest, and cloven. Stamina : 

 filaments four, awl-shaped, erect, distant, the two nearest ones 

 longest ; anthers roundish. Pistil : germen superior, four- 

 cleft; style thread-shaped, erect, longer than the corolla; 

 stigma in two divaricated divisions. Pericarp none, except 

 the permanent straight calyx. Seeds four, small, generally 

 abortive. 



Essential character. — Calyx five-cleft, nearly equal. 

 Corolla nearly equal, four-cleft, its broadest segment cloven. 

 Stamens erect, distant. 



The herbage and even the flowers of mint abound with 

 resinous dots, the seat of an essential oil, on which the warm 

 and aromatic qualities of the plants depend. The genus is 



