Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 239was the plant recommended by Classical writers as a flea repellent. In defer-
ence to that, posies of the plant were at one time frequently kept in cottages
in Devon^247 and no doubt elsewhere. The Classical authors, however, also
praised this plant as useful to ‘bring away the afterbirth’ and pennyroyal has
consequently enjoyed a secondary, apparently much more
widespread reputation as an abortifacient—and the
plant does indeed harbour a toxic chemical, pulegone.
Though records of its use for that purpose predictably
feature but rarely in the folk literature and the hand-
ful that have been traced are mostly from the east
of England (Essex,^248 Cambridgeshire,^249 Nor-
folk,^250 Lancashire,^251 Yor kshire^252 ), there is con-
siderable evidence to suggest that it has been one of
the most popular solutions for unwanted preg-
nancies down through the years and continued in
currency more or less down to the present. An
associated use, more freely reported, has been for
menstrual obstruction (Dorset,^253 Suffolk,^254
Norfolk,^255 Lancashire^256 ).
In its non-clandestine roles, however,
pennyroyal has principally served as just
another mint, sharing with so many
other members of the Lamiaceae an
obvious ability to clear the nasal and
bronchial passages. In that capacity it has
evidently been preferred to the wild mar-
joram (Origanum vulgare), which has a
similar scent, and usurped its Latin name
Origanum in the corrupted forms of ‘organy’
and ‘organ(s)’. Under the last name a tea
made from it has been drunk very ex-
tensively in Cornwall^257 and par-
ticularly Devon^258 at least since
the seventeenth century,^259
either as a refreshing pick-
me-up or, mixed with honey,
for colds and the like. It was
traditionally taken out to har-
Mentha pulegium, pennyroyal (Brunfels
1530, p. 227)