1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



525 



at least, and our race of roses would eventually 

 become hardier and more vigorous. The prac- 

 tice ought to be a sine qua non with all raisers, 

 some discretion being exercised jis regards the 

 variety and the situation. 



A PLEA 



FOR THE OLD- 

 LAVENDER. 



FASHIONED 



BY MRS. 



H. E. WHITE, BRYAN, BR.\ZOS CO., TEXAS. 



In a number of your magazine, a corres- 

 pondent pleads the cause of the Wallflower or 

 "Dame's Violet," as it was called in the old- 

 fashioned days, when it was the favorite of high- 

 born ladies. There is another flower, even 

 dearer to me from the associations tHat cluster 

 around it, than the Wallflower, and this much 

 loved flower is the Lavender. It is called Lav- 

 endula from the Latin lavare, to wash — because 

 the ancients used it in bathing and washing ; 

 and we all know the oil is used in medicine and 

 perfumery. Lavender water and lavender tea 

 are used to soothe the nervous and hysterical. 

 These qualities give it a rank among doctors and 

 perfumers. Now for its use in flower gardens. 

 With its silvery, compact leaves, and purple 

 blooms it makes a beautiful hedge, planted and 

 trained and trimmed as we do Box hedges. I 

 remember a garden I visited frequently while I 



"Yea, brings It not to eyery breast 

 Some viaion sad and sweet, 

 Of some loved memory laid to rest 

 In Violet-scented sheet." 



We lay our loved dead, our holiest memories, 

 to rest in sheets scented with Violets and Laven- 

 der ; there is a holiness, a purity about these two 

 modest, purple blooms, that no other fragrance 

 can claim ; other flowers smell stale after a time, 

 these two always seem fresh and pure. 



Lavender was, in old days, an emblem of 

 affection, and Dryden as well as Keats, has em- 

 balmed it in verse. 



"He from his lass, him Lavender hath sent. 

 Showing his love, and doth requital crave." 



Let US revive the ancient love and apprecia- 

 tion of this flower ! Let it perfume our linen, 

 our baths, and soothe our nerves with its fragrant 

 tea. Let us honor our gardens with this an- 

 cient, patrician plant that stands in its simple 

 suit of silver and purple, and claims a place 

 among flowers that gold and scarlet can never 

 fill. 



GARDEN SCIONS. 



BY CANTAB, BOSTON, MASS. 



Verbena venosa is a good old favorite. It is 

 not hardy here, but winters well in a cold frame. 

 It bears seeds abundantly, but old plants come 

 into bloom several weeks before the seedlings ; 



wa^ in Southern Europe, and to me. one of the j ^^^^^ ^^^ desirability of keeping over a lot of 



sweetest, prettiest things in it, was a hedge ten- 1 ^^^^ ^j^.^ Verbena has deep purple flowers, 



derly guarding the flower beds; a hedge, all' 



silver and purple, of modest, old-foshioned 



Lavender. Bring it from the kitchen garden 



and let it adorn our flower yards, where low 



hedges are wanted. In obsolete parlance to 

 "lay in lavender," meant to lay away nicely 

 and carefully, to keep sweet, showing that from 

 time immemorial, lavender has been used to 

 perfume clothing. Does not the dainty Keats 

 tell us, in his "Eve of St. Agnes," of the "Laven- 

 der-scented sheets ! " Does not its perfume 

 bring to us a delicious drearh of our childhood? 



them. 



blooms all summer long, is excellent for com- 

 mon bouquet work, a good grower and is not 

 subject to blight or rust. In England, planted 

 among Bijou pelargoniums, we find it in al- 

 most all large gardens. 



If you want a fl.oral display in summer, plant 

 Petunias, and if you want a gay window in 

 winter, the Petunia has no equal. 



In a garden on Main Street a large variegated 

 Century Plant is set on a pedestal four feet high. 

 Virginia Creeper has grown around the pedes- 



We feel the cool linen against our cheeks ; there i tal, up over and tiidden the pot, and some of 

 is a breath oflavender, a vision of our mother i the branches have twined through among the 

 "tucking us in bed" for the night! For an { leaves of the century plant. The whole thing 

 instant we are children again and life a beau ti- 1 looks cosy and becoming, and the vines, by a 

 ful picture of purity and hope It is gone like i little annual cutting, can be made to perform 

 the breath of lavender, but are we not better for | the same office for years unlimited, 

 that passing moment of childhood? Another case is that of an old Pear tree forked 



In a poem upon Violets, one verse is equally ; about six feet from the ground. The stem 

 appropriate to the Lavender, if we substitute it is clad in Virginia Creeper, and in the fork rests 

 for violet. i a pot full of Oxalis floribunda. The bunch of 



