106 Some Wild or Common Fragrant Plants. 



be hoped that the hybridiser may succeed in wedding the two 

 natures and giving to their progeny the fragrance of the present 

 popular favourite. The various Laurels, allied to our common 

 Cherry, are well-known sweet-scented shrubs. Entomologists 

 are well acquainted with the prussic acid derived from the leaves 

 of the cherry laurel, Cerasus Lauro-cerasus. The Sweet Bay, 

 Laurus nobilis, is much used for flavouring such diverse things 

 as sardines, figs, and confectionery. Lavender, Lavandula spica 

 or vera, is so well known as a fragrant plant as merely to require 

 mention. It is a valuable commercial plant in many places. 

 The Lilac will readily occur to many as fragrant in the extreme. 

 Lilies give us many flowers with distinct fragrance, although 

 that of some is too pronounced, especially indoors. 



Then the Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis, is a 

 favourite with all for its beauty and its fragrance. In the night- 

 scented stock, Mathiola bicornis, we have a little known annual 

 whose sole merit is its delicious fragrance towards evening. 

 The Mints, or Menthas, afford us a variety of plants with a 

 distinct aromatic odour. Some of these are very strongly per- 

 fumed. With them, although the scent is of a different character, 

 may be mentioned the Thymes, or Thymuses, which give their 

 distinct fragrance in a varied cla.ss of perfumes. In the Resedas 

 we have several native and other plants of sweet perfume, but the 

 common Mignonette of gardens, Reseda odorata, is the gem 

 among the genus. The most strongly scented of the Mimuluses 

 is our common musk, Mimulus moschatus, but the large 

 flowered one so much used in gardens and known as Harrison's 

 musk, is sadly lacking in the odour given by the small flowered 

 one. The Sweet Gale or Bog Myrtle, Myrica Gale, is a common 

 wilding so well known for its fragrance "as to require little 

 mention. In the same connection we may mention Myrrhis 

 odorata, the Sweet Cicely. As a house plant the Myrtle, 

 Myrtus communis, is well known as most fragrant, and the 

 Marcissus, or Daffodil, in its various sections, is almost always 

 distinctly fragrant, although the Jonquils and the Tazettas are the 

 most sweetly perfumed. Pelargoniums and Erodiums are nearly 

 always fragrant, and the former, of course, include the Scented- 

 leaved "Geraniums " of gardens, which vary wonderfully in the 

 nature of their perfume. Among the Heron's Bills, or Erodiums, 

 we have many plants of aromatic odours. The Mock Orange, 



