Dtl'itlis. Natural Order: Labiatce — Mint Family. 
VERAL plants are known under the common name of mint, 
fthe Spearmint being probably the most agreeable to the taste. 
It is used in making sauces for some varieties of meat, especially 
lamb; medicinally it is said to allay fevers, and act against spas¬ 
modic affections. The Peppermint is well known through the 
^ essences sold by all pharmaceutists. Both plants are natives 
of Europe, and affect moist places, frequently growing beside shallow 
streams and in low, wet meadows, where they seem much more 
^brittle and tender, from the amount of water they suck up into their 
stems. Either plant grows well in the garden, spreading rapidly by 
means of their creeping roots. The flowers are purple, and in slender 
racemes. According to mythology, Minthe, a nymph of the woods 
and streams, and beloved by Hades (Pluto), was turned by Proserpine 
into one of these plants. 
♦ 
TTIRTUE stands like the sun, and all which rolls around 
' Drinks life, and light, and glory from her aspect. 
— Byron. 
jOOUNT life by virtues — these will last 
''- y When life’s lame-footed race is o’er; 
And these, when earthly joys are past, 
Shall cheer us on a brighter shore. 
—Mrs. S. J. Hale. 
T7TRTUE, dear friend, needs no defense; 
v The surest guard is innocence: 
Quivers and bows and poison’d darts 
Are only used by guilty hearts. 
— Roscommon. 
T 7IRTUE could see to do what virtue would 
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 
Were in the flat sea sunk. —Milton. 
/"INLY a sweet and virtuous soul, 
^ Like season’d timber, never gives; 
But, though the whole world turn to coal, 
Then chiefly lives. —George Herbert. 
'T'HE path to peace is virtue; what I show, 
A Thyself may freely on thyself bestow; 
Fortune was never worship’d by the wise, 
But set aloft by fools, usurps the skies. 
—Dryden. 
O 
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