DIJDYNAMIA. GYMNOSPERMIA. Mentha. 701 
M. piperi'ta. (Spikes blunt, interrupted below: leaves egg-shaped, 
stalked, smoothish: calyx very smooth at the base. E.) 
Stem upright, branched, a little hairy, with recurved hairs, often purplish. 
Leaves dark green, sharpish, serrated, rather smooth above, more or less 
hairy, but never downy or shaggy beneath. Spike terminal, the lowest 
whorl remote, stalked, sometimes spiked. Floral-leaves spear-shaped, 
fringed. Calyx slender, furrowed, dotted, the teeth dark purple and 
fringed. Blossom purplish. 
Var. I. Leaves egg-spear-shaped; spikes elongated to a point. 
Sole Menth. 15. t. 7—E. Bot. 687 —Woodv. Med. Bot. t. 169—Pet. t. 31. /. 
10— Blackw. 291. 2. stamens represented too long. 
The true Peppermint of the London Pharmacopoeia : first discovered by Dr. 
Eales in Hertfordshire. Ray. In a swampy place on Lansdown, near 
Bath, called the Wells; also by the side of the Avon in Newton Mead. 
Mr. Sole. In a rivulet in Bonsall Dale, near Matlock. Sir J. E. Smith. 
Near the river at Tamworth. 
Var. 2. Leaves egg-shaped; spikes with their points abridged, almost 
capitate. 
Sole Mentli. 19. t. 8— R. Syn. t. 10. f. 2. 
Herb Sherard. By Wandsworth river. About Bath in various watery 
places ; between Wells and Glastonbury ; also in Chiltern bottom, Wilts. 
Mr. Sole. 
Var. 3. Larger in every respect than the other varieties; leaves broad, 
almost heart-shaped ; spikes long and thick. 
Sole Menth. 53. t. 24. 
At Lyncomb Spa, and other wet places about Bath. Mr. Sole. At the 
south-west corner of Saham Meer, near Watton, Norfolk. Sir J. E. Smith. 
Pepper Mint. M. piperita. Hudson; not of Linnaeus, his plant so named 
being only a variety of M. hirsuta. E.) Watery places and sides of 
rivulets. (Rare in Scotland. Near Edinburgh. Mr. Greene. Grev. 
Edin. E.) P. Aug.—Sept.* 
(M. citra'ta. Spikes capitate, very blunt: leaves on short leaf-stalks, 
heart-shaped, naked on both sides: calyx and flower-stalks 
smooth. 
imagined, that cataplasms and fomentations of Mint, would dissolve coagulations of 
milk in the breasts ; but Dr. Lewis says, that the curd of milk, digested in a strong 
infusion of Mint, could not be perceived to be any otherwise affected than by common 
water; however, milk in which Mint leaves were set to macerate, did not coagulate 
nearly so soon as an equal quantity of the same milk kept by itself. Dr. Lewis 
observes that dry Mint, digested in rectified spirits of wine, gives out a tincture, which 
appears, by day-light, of a fine dark green, but, by candle light, of a bright red colour. 
The fact is, that a small quantity of this tincture is green, either by day-light or by 
candle-light, but a large quantity of it seems impervious to common day-light; and, 
when held between the eye and a candle, or between the eye and the sun, it appears red ; 
so that if put into a flat bottle it may show either green, or red, as it is viewed through the 
fiat side or through the edge of a bottle. (It is credibly reported that mice are so averse to 
the smell of mint, either recent or dried, that they will desist from their depredations on 
grain, cheese, and other stores, over which it is scattered. Probably the essential oils might 
prove equally preservative. E.) 
* The stem and leaves are beset with numbers of very minute glands, containing the 
essential oil, which rises plentifully in distillation. Peppermint water is well known as a 
carminative and antispasmodic. The essence of Peppermint is an elegant medicine, and 
possesses the most active properties of the plant. 
