Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum, Linn.). Papa veracece.
A tall, smooth, somewhat branching annual, of grayish green color, reaching a height of about five feet, bearing large, ovate leaves with irregu larly cut margins and clasping base. The large, solitary flowers are borne at the ends of somewhat elongated stems. The flowers vary in color from pure white to a striking magenta or purplish color, petals usually with a spot of darker color at the base. The fruit capsules are roundish in outline, somewhat elongated, or sometimes oblate. Some forms bear valves near the top, which open at ma turity and permit the seed to escape ; in others the valves do not open. The capsules, when scored superficially, yield abundant milky juice ; in India, China, Persia and Turkey this is collected and dried to form opium, the crude gum from which the alkaloids morphine and codeine are separated. The white seeds are used under the name of "maw" seed in bird-seed, and as a source of a pleasant bland oil used for food purposes. The blue-seeded form is prized for culinary purposes in making the "Mahn Kuchen" of Germany and Austria, and in other forms of bakery. The oil is used for burning, in soap-making, and as a salad oil, either under its own or under some other name. Experiments being conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture have in view the cultivation of the poppy in the United States for the seed and for the alkaloids. Opium-making is not encouraged.
Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides, Pere.). Labiate (G. F. Klugh.) A low, annual, erect, branching herb, six to eighteen inches high, with hairy, angled stem, and hairy, oblong or ovate leaves bearing short petioles, margins obscurely and bluntly serrate, glandular, especially on underside ; flowers pale blue, crowded into loose terminal spikes. A native herb found wild in open woods along fences, usually in some what shaded places.
It grows on a variety of soils but is best in a garden soil where it makes an unusual growth. The seed should be sown in late fall in three-foot rows, at the rate of two pounds per acre. It should
be cultivated as a garden crop and cut when in flower. The dried herb may be sold to drug deal ers or the plants may be distilled, green or dry, with live steam for their volatile oil. The yield of dry herb per acre on good soil should be about two tons.
Peppermint (Mentha piperita, Linn.). Labiate. American mint. Fig. 689.
A perennial herb, usually one and one-half to three feet high, having a fibrous root system, many running rootstocks by means of which it is rapidly propagated, a thick growth of upright or ascend ing, branching, square stems, opposite leaves with entire margin, acute apex, short petioles, punctate with pellucid oil-glands ; flowers purplish in loose, interrupted terminal spikes on the main stem and branches formed by the whorled clusters of flowers at the nodes. Characteristic when wild of wet places. Introduced from Europe.
Mentha piperita, var. offieinalis, Sole., the so called "white mint," is a smaller plant, having light green stems and foliage. It is grown chiefly in England.
Nentha piperita, var. vulgaris, Sole., the so-called "black mint," is like the species in stature, with large leaves, generally two to three inches long. Entire plant dark in color, due to the presence of a purplish pigment in le;.ves and stems. The va rieties are of European origin, and although both have been introduced into the United States the white mint has not been grown extensively. The black mint is the most generally used. In America it has proved hardy and very productive.
Peppermint -culture is practiced in England, Japan, Germany and some other countries on a small scale, but extensively in the United States.
Perhaps 2,000 pounis will cover the amount of Pnzlish and German peppermint oil distilled yearly. These countries import most of their oil from the d States. Michigan, northern Indiana and Wayne county, New York, 'are the most important regions. The Japanese pep permint oils are obtained from a different botanical source, Melaka arrensis piper asinms,Malinvaud, and Mcntlia arrensis plabrata, Holmes.