Penny-royal.
Pulegium.
Also see: Spear Mint - Water mint - Peppermint - Long Leaved Wild Mint - Penny-royal
A wild plant, creeping about on marshy places, with little leaves, and tufts of red flowers at the joints. The stalks are a foot long, round, and often of a reddish colour. The leaves are small, broad, and pointed at the ends, and of a pale green colour. The flowers stand round the joints in thick clusters: they are like those of mint, and of a pale red, and the cups in which they stand are green, and a little hairy. The whole plant has a strong penetrating smell, and an acrid but not disagreeable taste.
The whole plant is used, fresh or dried; but that which grows wild, is much stronger than the larger kind, which is cultivated in gardens. The simple water is the best way of taking it, though it will do very well in infusion, or by way of tea. It is excellent against stoppages of the menses.
