MINT, botanically Mentha, a genus of plants of the family Labiatae, comprising about 25 species of perennial herbs, widely distributed throughout the temperate and sub-tropical portions of the globe, but chiefly in the temperate regions of the Old World. The species have square stems, opposite, aromatic leaves, and a stoloniferous creeping rootstock. The flowers are arranged in axillary clusters (cymes), which either form separate whorls or are crowded together into a terminal spike. The corolla is usually small and of a pale purple or pinkish colour; it has four nearly equal lobes, and encloses two long and two short stamens.
In Great Britain a number of species are indigenous or natural ized but the forms easily hybridize so that there is great con fusion in the genus. Mentha viridis is the garden mint or spear mint (q.v.), which is commonly used for culinary purposes; it is distinguished by its smooth, sessile leaves and lax tapering flower-spikes. It is probably a cultivated race of the next species, Mentha sylvestris, which chiefly differs from the above in its coarser habit and hairy leaves, which are silky beneath, and in its denser flower-spikes. This plant is supposed to be the mint of
Scripture, as it is extensively cultivated in the East ; it was one of the bitter herbs with which the paschal lamb was eaten. M. aquatics grows in ditches, and is easily recognized by its rounded flower-spikes and stalked hairy leaves. M. piperita, or pepper mint (q.v.), has stalked smooth leaves and an oblong obtuse terminal spike of flowers ; it is cultivated for its volatile oil. M. pratensis belongs to a group which have the flowers arranged in axillary whorls and never in terminal spikes ; it otherwise bears some resemblance to M. viridis. M. Pulegium, commonly known as pennyroyal, has small oval obtuse leaves and flowers in axillary whorls, and is remarkable for its creeping habit and peculiar odour. It was formerly popular for medicinal purposes. All the genus Mentha abound in a volatile oil, contained in resinous dots in the leaves and stems. Most mints blossom in August.
The name mint is also applied to plants of other genera, Monarda punctata being called horsemint, Pycnanthemum lini folium mountain mint, and Nepeta Cataria catmint.