399 ORD. XIX. VWerticillate. LAVANDULA SPICA. 
of a long-eylindrical tube, divided at the mouth into two lips, the 
uppermost of which is largest, and cut into two segments; the 
lower expands downwards, and separates into three: the filaments 
are four, two long, and two short, inclosed within the tubular part 
of the. corolla, and support small simple anther: in the place of 
a germen we find four naked seeds, from the centre of which pro- 
ceeds the style, which is slender, and furnished. with a bilobated 
stigma. It is a native of the south of Europe, and flowers from 
July till September. This plant was formerly considered as a spe- 
cies of Nardus, and appears to be the Pseudo-nardus of Matthiolus 
and Pliny. 
Lavender grows spontaneously in-many-of the southern parts of 
Europe; it appears from Turner to have been cultivated in England 
previous to the year 1568,* and on account of the fragrance of its 
flowers,-it is now so commonly cultivated, that we can scarcely enter 
-a garden in which this plant is not to be found: The fragrant 
smell of the flowers is well known, and to most people agreeable ; 
to the taste they are bitterish, warm, and somewhat pungent; the 
leaves are weaker and less grateful. ‘ Water extracts by infusion 
nearly all the virtue both of the leaves and flowers. In distillation 
with water the leaves yield a very small portion of essential oil; 
the flowers a much larger, amounting in their perfectly mature 
state > to about one ounce from sixty. The oil is ofa bright yellow 
colour, of a very pungent taste, and possesses, if carefully distilled, 
the fragrance of the Lavender in perfection.‘ Rectified spirit ex- 
* Vide Aiton’s Hort, Kew. 
* In order to obtain the largest quantity of essential oil from these and most 
other flowers of this kind, they should be allowed to grow to their full maturity, 
and be dried for some time. 
© Hence it is frequently employed ae This ‘oil has been used for 
stimulating paralytic limbs, and for other external purposes. We are also told that 
it effectually destroys cutaneous insecis, and that if soft spongy paper be dipped in 
this oil, and applied to the parts, it immediately kills the pediculi inguinales.—This 
oil, distilled from the broad-leaved Lavender, and mixed with three-fourths of recs 
tifted spirit, or oil of turpentine, was the Oleum spice, formerly high celebrated as 
aa application to indolent tumours, old sprains, diseased joints, &c, 
