Editing Spearmint (section)

==History and domestication==

Mention of spearmint dates back to at least the 1st century AD, with references from naturalist Pliny and mentions in the Bible.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/plants-and-animals/plants/plants/spearmint|title=Spearmint {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2018-12-10|archive-date=2018-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211095601/https://www.encyclopedia.com/plants-and-animals/plants/plants/spearmint|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ourherbgarden.com/herb-history/mint.html|title=Mint|date=2013-03-02|website=Our Herb Garden|language=en-US|access-date=2018-12-10|archive-date=2023-02-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219171826/http://www.ourherbgarden.com/herb-history/mint.html}}</ref> Further records show descriptions of mint in ancient mythology.<ref name=":13" /> Findings of early versions of toothpaste using mint in the 14th century suggest widespread domestication by this point.<ref name=":13" /> It was introduced into England by the Romans by the 5th century, and the "Father of British Botany", of the surname Turner, mentions mint as being good for the stomach.<ref name=":13" /> [[John Gerard]]'s ''Herbal'' (1597) states that: "It is good against watering eyes and all manner of break outs on the head and sores. "It is applied with salt to the biting of mad dogs," and that "They lay it on the stinging of [[wasp]]s and bees with good success."  He also mentions that "the smell rejoices the heart of man", for which reason they used to strew it in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure, and repose, where feasts and banquets are made."<ref>{{cite book|title=A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses, Volume 2|author=Grieve, Maud|year=1971}}</ref>

Spearmint is documented as being an important cash crop in [[Connecticut]] during the period of the [[American Revolution]], at which time mint tea was noted as being a popular drink due to it not being taxed.<ref name=":12" />