Ze 
cacious in rheumatic fevers. Oil from the leaves is used for a 
perfume in toilet preparations. Candies are flavored with it. It is 
used as a rubbing oil for lumbago and rheumatic pains. 
It grows best in acid, sandy soil, and increases by underground 
creeping stems, which root as they go. These stems can be divided 
for planting. 
49, SwEET WoopruFF (lsperula odorata) has t 
name Belle étoile blanche, which describes its bloom perfectly. It 
is the leaves, however, which are of value, and they are sweetest 
— 
1e lovely French 
when dried, when they have the fragrance of new mown hay. 
Sprigs of Waldmeister, as it is called in Germany, are steeped in 
Rhine wine to make the May Bowl or May Drink, on May Day. It 
can be used in tea quite pleasantly. 
Sweet Woodruff is perennial, growing as a charming ground 
cover, 3 to 4 inches high, under lilacs or any spring blooming shrub 
with which its tiny white stars seem in harmony. It can be divided 
any time after blooming, and will thicken and spread in either moist 
or fairly dry soil. 
50. Wormwoop (Artemisia Absinthium), the bitterest her 
the world, has a long and interesting history. Since Bible times it 
pao 
yan 
has been branded with its bitterness, in fact it was said to have 
sprung up in the track of the serpent writhing its way out of Eden. 
It is used in the making of absinthe, the continued use of which 
is said to destroy the brain. It 1s healthful, infused in wine, to 
prevent summer sickness. In the Middle Ages babies rubbed 
with wormwood before their fifteenth day were never to feel heat 
nor cold so long as they lived! Wormwood tonic was much used 
in Colonial America, the leaves and blossoms being dried for this 
purpose. 
It thrives in full sun, spreads rapidly and can be divided. The 
silver grey leaves are a good foil for other plants and greener 
foliage. It grows to about three feet, and needs staking. 
A Few Books Anout HERBs 
Clarkson, Rosetta KE. Magic gardens, a modern chronicle of herbs 
and savory seeds. New York, Macmillan, 1939, 
Fox, Helen Morgenthau. Gardening with herbs for flavor and 
fragrance. New York, Macmillan, 1936. 
