PEPPERMINT, ITS CULTIVATION AND PRODUCE. 
241 
mint, but when dried, thirty. When stills are hired, they charge 
twenty-one shillings per still, or once filling, which makes it advan- 
tageous to the grower. Green mint will run off three-and-a-half 
pounds on the average, and dry mint from four to five pounds. An 
acre of mint produces about five tons ; that is, from four to six, as 
seasons produce great variations, both in plant and oil. Spear- 
mint is treated in a similar way to peppermint, but the plant being 
stronger, requires more room. It is but little grown here, and that 
for culinary purposes. 
Diseases of the Mints. 
The greatest detriment to mints is termed the smut or parasitical 
fungi, of which there are three species, very troublesome, but more 
so in dry summers, which occasion the plants to get rusty and lose 
their leaf, diminishing the bulk very much. The worst is JEcidium 
menthce, which spreads over the whole plant. It is of a dull yel- 
low color, and attacks the plant just before it flowers. The next 
is Uredo Labiatarum. This attacks the under side of the leaf, and 
is frequently mixed with the former. It is of a light brown color. 
A third species, Puccinia menthce, attacks the plant in spring, and 
frequently disappears before the others are seen. The under part 
of the plant being covered with mii'ute black spots, especially in 
wet seasons. Other fungi of a higher order, are parasitical on the 
stems after cutting, and probably arise from decay, 
The mints or other medicinal plants grown in this parish, are 
on a small scale, many growers not having above half an acre, and 
of lavender about the same : the above are the principal herbs 
grown here ; besides two or three small general growers, who sup- 
ply Covent Garden. 
About fifty acres of mint, and fifty of lavender, are grown at 
Carshalton. 
Lavendula latifolia* has been grown here, and seeds very freely, 
but is not held in very high estimation. — Pharmaceutical Journal 
and Transactions Jan. 1851. 
*Lavendula latifola is the L. spica of De Candolle. — Ed. Ph. J. 
