8 



SPIKED MINTS. 



PL. III. 



3. STRONG-SCENTED MINT. 



THIS plant grows from two feet and half to three feet in height; its 

 {talks are quadrangular, hairy, upright, and very much branched with 

 flowering-fprigs elegantly difpofed, each fprig generally terminating in 

 three (and fometimes more) beautiful flender fpikes, of whitifh-red 

 flowers, which are fo expanded that the ftamens with their little red an- 

 thers or chives are always in fight, and are longer than the flower j the 

 leaves are wrinkled and downy underneath, and are fleeker and of a dark 

 green above, the veins are neatly reticulated, and obvious on both fides ; 

 the lower leaves are oblong and blunt, the upper leaves are roundifh; they 

 are feffile, and are crenated rather than dentated. It has a very ftrong 

 volatile mixed fmell of volatile fait of amber, camphor, and mint. 



This is the true Menthaflrum, or wild Horfe-Mint of the {hops. 



It is now and then found spontaneous in muddy places in high moors ; for instance, on 

 a common at Elsmoor, Shropshire, but it is very rare: yet as an honourable relict of our 

 venerable Gothick ruins, it is very common; as in a close called the Abbey -Warren, at 

 llinton-Abbey in Somerset; in the environs of Abbey-Tintern, S. Wales; at Ragland- 

 Castle, ditto; in a close called the Abbots-Garden, at Glastonbury-Abbey ; in a high mea- 

 dow near Berkeley-Castle ; at Wenlock- Abbey, Salop; at the ruins of an old abbey, or 

 castle, (I forget which) near the strand at Holly well i and observed by Mr.Blackstone, in 

 Harefield church-yard, and by Dr. Deering, in the neighbourhood of Nottingham-Castle. 



Thefe habitats fufficiently evince, that the powers of this plant were well 

 underftood by the Monks, who were in their days the principal phyficians; 

 and this knowledge (as foon as literature begin to revive in Europe) was 

 eafily acquired from the works of the Arabian phyficians, particularly 

 Rhafes, who made great ufe of this plant. Be this as it may, it certainly 

 is a plant of great virtue, and deferves to be better known than it is at pre- 

 fent, being an excellent cephalic, antihyfteric, ecphraftic, and cardiac fimple. 

 I have found it of great ufe in cafes of epilepfy, and chlorofis; the latter 

 cafe it moft commonly cures in two or three months. I cannot fay it has 

 ever cured epilepfy, but it wonderfully refreflies the brain, reftores the me- 

 mory, and takes off the dull ftupid languor occafioned by thofe fits. 



My mode of giving it is this: — Take six drachms of fine powder, made from the green 

 leaves and flower spikes, hastily dried, and with a sufficient quantity of syrup of orange- 

 peel make an electuary ; the quantity oj a nutmeg to be taken morning, noon, and night, 

 washing it down with a wine-glass of tea made with the same green herb in summer, and 

 of the dried herb in winter. In all cases before I enter upon the use of if, I premise an 

 emetic of Ipecacuanha powder, and a scruple of Pit. Rufi, in four pills, to be taken after 

 the emetic the same night. 



