Use.—Pennyroyal possesses a warm, pungent, somewhat aromatic taste, and is employed exclusively for medical purposes. An infusion of the leaves is stimulating, sudorific, tonic, and beneficial in colds and chills.
This plant must not be confounded with the Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) of English writers, which is a species of Mint, and quite distinct from the plant generally known as Pennyroyal in this country.
POPPY, OR MAW.
Papaver somniferum, var. nigrum.
A hardy annual, growing naturally in different parts of Europe, and cultivated to a considerable extent in Germany for its seeds, which, under the name of "Maw-seed," are an article of some commercial importance. Stem five or six feet high, branching; leaves smooth, glaucous, clasping, and much cut or gashed on the borders; flowers large, terminal, purple and white; the bud pendent, or drooping, until the time of flowering, when it becomes erect. The petals soon fall to the ground, remaining on the plant but a few hours after their expansion; and are succeeded by large, roundish heads, or capsules, two inches and upwards in diameter, filled with the small, darkish-blue seeds for which the plant is principally cultivated.
Soil, Sowing, and Culture.—"The soils best suited to the growth of the Poppy are such as are of medium texture and in the highest state of fertilization. As the seeds are small, and consequently easily buried, the land should be well pulverized by harrowing and rolling. The seeds are sown in April, in drills about half an inch in depth, and twenty inches or two feet distant from each other. The young plants are afterwards thinned out to from six to ten inches' distance in the rows, and the whole crop kept free from weeds by frequent hoeing.
"The period of reaping is about the month of August, when the earliest and generally the largest capsules begin to open. The plants are then cut or pulled, and tied in small bundles, taking care not to allow the heads to recline until they are carried to the place allotted for the reception of the seed; which is then shaken out, and the sheaves again set upon their ends for the ripening of the remaining capsules.
"In Germany and Flanders, a mode of obtaining the first crop is to spread sheets by the side of the row, into which the seeds are shaken by bending over the tops of the plants: these are then pulled, tied in bundles, and removed; when the sheets are drawn forward to the next row, and so on, until the harvesting is completed."—Law.
Use.—Maw-seed is imported to some extent from different parts of Europe, and is principally used in this country for feeding birds.