Some Wild or Common Fragrant Plants. 105 



Then not everyone is aware that the leaves of the Strawberry give 

 off a subtle but delicious fragrance when they are passing into 

 decay. On a sunny morning after a sharp night's frost this will 

 be readily perceived in the garden or on the banks where the 

 wild strawberry grows. The little Ground Ivy, or Glechoma 

 hederacea, is a small aromatic plant whose leaves were at one 

 time put in ale to give it an aromatic flavour, hence probably its 

 name of Alehoof from its use and the form of its leaves. The 

 Heliotrope, or Cherry Pie, Heliotropium peruvianum, is too well 

 known to require any further notice of its perfume, but it may be 

 mentioned that it derives its popular name from the fact that it 

 was employed to give a flavour to cherry pies and other products 

 of the cook and the confectioner. The Sweet Rocket, Hesperis 

 matronalis, is an old garden flower long noted for its fragrance, 

 and everyone knows the perfume of our common Honeysuckle, 

 Lonicera Periclymenum. It is too overpowering at times for 

 many of us. Then the Candytuft, or Iberis, is well-known as 

 fragrant, although the perennial species are less gifted with this 

 than the annual. Among the Irises we have several with fragrant 

 flowers, but it is to those which have rhizomatous root-stocks that 

 we owe the perfume produced by the dried rhizomes which yield 

 the orris or violet perfume forming the basis of dry powders for 

 giving a violet scent to sachets, etc. In the Jasmines we have 

 several plants which yield a delicious fragrance. This is most 

 perceptible in the summer-flowering Jasminum oflicinale, the 

 Sweet Jasmine, which is said to be employed by Eastern women 

 to scent the hair and skin by rolling the flowers in the hair at 

 night. Whatever may be the case now, it was understood some 

 years ago that the skill of the chemist had not been able to 

 produce this perfume by any other way than from this plant itself. 

 The crushed leaves of the Walnut, Juglans regia, are liked by 

 those who know the fragrance they exhale, but few people are 

 acquainted with it. I may here refer to the aromatic perfume of 

 the Juniper and other coniferous trees. Few lack this, and its 

 beneficial effects are well known. Several ferns are aromatic or 

 sweet-.scented, among the best being the Lastreas; and Lastrea 

 oreopteris has acquired the name of " Sweet Mountain Fern " 

 from this virtue. Among the Peas that with the most pronounced 

 perfume is, of course, Lathyrus odoratus, the .sweet Pea. Few 

 of the perennial peas are gifted with this fragrance, but it is to 



