both there^214 and in Suffolk^215 that infusion also had the supposed extra
virtue of preventing bad dreams. But whereas in Suffolk it has additionally
been a specific for headache,^216 in Wiltshire it has been looked upon as a wart
cure, boiled in urine with pepper and nitre,^217 while from Cumbria there is a
record of a mixed bunch of nettle, dock and thyme leaves being applied to
lumbago as a counter-irritant switch.^218
The Irish uses are similar but records of them noticeably less widespread,
with a marked concentration in the south-east: in Wexford^219 the infusion has
been drunkbothtocounter respiratory troublesandas a sedative to calm the
nerves or induce deeper sleep, though in Wicklow^220 atuberculosis cure has
taken the form of an infusion mixed with honeysuckle and wild sage instead.
In Limerick, headaches were banished by sniffing the plant plucked fresh.^221
Mentha Linnaeus
mint
Old World temperate regions
Mentha aquatica Linnaeus
water mint
Europe, south-western Asia, North and South Africa, Madeira;
introduced into North America
Mentha ×piperita Linnaeus
peppermint
horticultural
Mentha spicata Linnaeus
spearmint
horticultural
Except for pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), the members of the genus Men-
tha,if distinguished at all in the folk literature, have borne their vernacular
names interchangeably and have been used medicinally for such a broadly
similar range of ailments that it is appropriate to discuss them together. Most
records probably relate to the native water mint (M. aquatica), the common
species of wet places. That is widely known also as ‘water peppermint’ or ‘wild
peppermint’, names rarely relating to the true peppermint (M.×piperita),
which is a garden hybrid, originating in England in the seventeenth century.
Though spearmint (M. spicata) is probably always distinguished correctly,
only two folk records of that have been found, while the solitary one for ‘horse
mint’ cannot confidently be ascribed to any of the species or hybrids now
Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 237