Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/513

army and navy, as well as those given by the Royal Society and the university of London and some others, are struck in the mint, and their preparation forms a considerable part of the work of the die department. Since 1874 the clasps and bars for the medals have also been manufactured in the mint, whence they have been issued completely mounted. Another operation, not connected with the coinage, which is performed in the mint is the assay of the “diet” or metal scraped from the gold and silver plate manufactured at Sheffield and Birmingham under the direction of the warden of the standard of wrought plate for those towns. By Act of Parliament it is directed that this shall be brought once in each year to the mint to be assayed by the “king's assay master,” under the supervision of an officer appointed by the lords

of the Treasury.

 

Fig. 13.—Automatic Balance.

 

The gold coin in circulation in Great Britain is estimated at £100,000,000. It may be well to add the following table, which gives the value of the gold and silver coinages of four of the most important foreign countries, in two recent years:—

1880. 1881. Gold. Silver. Gold. Silver. United States Germany Austria 12,461,655 1,332,430 493,605 5,481,941 1,674,712 19,370,178 326,837 485,999 83,646 5,587,840 1,805,734 259,910 France 14,287,690 7,156,653 20,266,660 7,653,484

The value of the gold coinage of the American mints during the fiscal year ending June 1882 amounted to $89,413,447·50, being greater than that of any previous year in their history.

(w. c. r.—r. a. h.)

MINT, botanically Mentha, a genus of labiate plants,

comprising about twenty species of perennial herbs, widely distributed throughout the temperate and sub-tropical portions of the globe. All the species are furnished with square stems, opposite, aromatic leaves, and creeping roots. The flowers are arranged in axillary cymes, which either form separate whorls or are crowded together into a terminal spike. The corolla is usually small, and of a pale purple or pinkish colour; it has four nearly equal lobes, and encloses two long and two short stamens. Great difficulty is experienced by botanists in discriminating the species of this genus by reason of the occurrence of a large number of intermediate forms, nearly three hundred of which have been named and described. Many of these varieties are

permanent in consequence of being propagated by stolons.

In Britain nine of the recognized species are indigenous. Mentha viridis, L., or Spearmint, grows in marshy

meadows, and is the species commonly used for culinary purposes; it is distinguished by its smooth, sessile leaves and lax tapering flower-spikes. Mentha sylvestris, L., or Horsemint, chiefly differs from the above in its coarser habit and hairy leaves, which are silky beneath, and in its denser flower-spikes. This plant is supposed to be the mint of Scripture, as it is extensively cultivated in the East, and is much used in cookery; it was one of the bitter herbs with which the paschal lamb was eaten. M. rotundifolia resembles the last in size and habit, but is readily distinguished by its rounded wrinkled leaves, which are shaggy beneath, and by its lanceolate bracts. The last two species usually grow on damp waste ground near roadsides. M. aquatica, or Capitate Mint, grows in ditches and by the side of streams, and is easily recognized by its rounded flower-spikes and stalked hairy leaves. M. Piperita, or Peppermint, has stalked smooth leaves and an oblong

obtuse terminal spike of flowers; it is extensively culti-