MIGNONETTE. 147 



The jNlignonettc is one of the plants whose un- 

 assuming little flowers never weary our sight : it is 

 therefore made the image of those interesting per- 

 sons whom time cannot change, and who, althouo-li 

 deficient in dazzling beauty, attach us for life, 

 when once they have succeeded in pleasing without 

 its aid. Hence it is but a natural desire that we 

 should wish to give an annual plant a perennial 

 existence, which has, in a great measure, been ac- 

 complished, since the odorous Tree Mignonette is 

 now frequently to be met with. This was at first 

 supposed to have been a different variety, when 

 Lady Whitshcd introduced it from Liege about 

 the year 1816, that lady having received it from 

 M. L'Abbe L'Arbaleste of that city, — a spot made 

 familiar to many readers, by the scenes which the 

 popular author of Quentin Durward has recited as 

 passing in that ancient commercial town. 



The Mignonette is transformed into a perennial 

 shrub, which dispenses its odours at all seasons of 

 the year, by the following simple treatment: a 

 healthy young plant should be placed in a garden- 

 pot, with a stick of about two feet in height in- 

 serted by its side to tie up its branches to, as it 

 advances in height, the leaves and young branches 

 being kept stripped off from the lower part, so as 

 to form a stem to the height required. This stem 

 will become sufficiently hard and woody to endure 



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