HERB A MENTH.E VIRIDLS. 



479 



tions, or beyond the limit of the olive. It is in fact a more southern 



})laiit and more susceptible to cold, so that it cannot be cultivated in the 



open soil in Britain except in sheltered positions. In Languedoc and 



Provence, it is the common species from the sea-level up to about 2000 



feet, where it is met by the more hardy X. vem.^ 



Lavandula Spica is distilled in the soutlx of France, the flowering 



wild plant in its entire state being used. The essential oil, which is 



termed in French Essence cV Aspic, is known to English druggists as 



Oleum LavandulcB spicce, Oleum Sjncw, or Oil of Spike. It resembles 



true oil of lavender, but compared with that distilled in England it 



has a much less delicate fragrance. This however may depend upon the 



frequent adulteration, for we find that flowers of the two plants (X. 

 vera and 



distinofu 



I L, S2^ica) grown side by side in an English garden, are hardly 

 ishable in fragrance. Porta already even, in speaking of the 

 ivender flowers, stated;- '' e snica fraarantior excipitur, ut 



oil of lavender flowers^ stated:^ 

 illud quod ex Gallia provenit 



JJ 



Lallcmand (1859) isolated 



from oil of spike a camphor which he believes to be identical with 



used in porcelain painting and in veterinary 



common camphor. 



Oil of Spike is 

 medicine. 



2. Lavandida Stoechas L.— This plant was well known to the 

 ancients ; Dioscorides remarks that it gives a name to the Stoechades, 

 the modern isles of Hieres near Toulon, where the plant still abounds. 

 It has a wider range than the two species of Lavandula already 

 described, for it is found in the Canaries and in Portugal, and eastward 

 throughout the Mediterranean region to Constantinople and Asia 

 Minor. It may at once be known from the other lavenders by its 

 flower-spike being on a short stalk, and terminating in 2 or 3 con- 

 spicuous purple bracts. . 3 



The flowers, called Flores Stoecliados or Stmchas amhica^ were 

 formerly kept in the shops, and had a place in the London Fharraa- 

 copceia down to 174G. We are not aware that they are, or ever were 

 distilled for essential oil, though they are stated to be the source ot 



>/^i 



HERBA MENTHA VIRIDIS- 



Spearmint 



wn in Europe, Asia and North America, as the Common 

 .dens, and oi!ly found apparently wild m coun nes .he e 1^ 



Botanical Ovxgxn-MeMa mrUis L. is a Vagrant perennial plant, 

 chiefly know * " - - - » - ^^ 



Mint of gardens, ana oniy louna appaicui^ij ,...v. — --_ ,„,,i._ ^„ph 

 ^as long been cultivated. It occurs occasionally m Britain under such 



circumstances.' 



r 



On the high land between Xice and 



i^urbia, I have observed the two species 



IJ'ownig togetliev, and that L. vera is in 



Hower two or tliree weeka earlier thaji L. 

 Spica.~D, H. 



3 ;ff <^^'illatione, Komw, 1G08. 87. 

 -The incorrectness of the term Aralica 

 18 noticed by Pomet. How it came to be 

 applied we know not. 



^Pereira. £hm. of Mat. Med. n. (18.>(.) 

 1 30riS do we kn w if LInncUa Bo^.s 

 1 ven- fragrant species closely alhed to /-■. 

 %]!caT>C.%nA anative of Spam, is di.tdled 



'^''£Z^yiandhool-o/ the Brmsk Flora 

 1S5S 413 -Parkinson (1G40) remarks of 

 SpeareMint that it i^s "onely found planted 

 ill gardens Avithxis." 



