2 REMARKS ON THE JASMINE. 



time. Dioscorides is the only Greek author that notices it; and 

 as he has given no description of the plant or flower, but only 

 tells us that the Persians obtained an oil from a white flower, with 

 which they perfumed their apartments during their repasts, it is 

 probable he only became acquainted with the jasmine during 

 his attendance as a physician on Antony and Cleopatra, in Egypt, 

 whose unbounded luxury would naturally call this essence from 

 the land of odours. 



At what time this plant first perfumed the British atmosphere, 

 is uncertain, Mr. Aiton says, in 1548; but we consider it to be 

 much longer acquainted with our soil, as it seems to have been 

 so common in the time of Gerard as to have been considered a 

 native plant by some persons. This excellent author says, 

 " Jesemin is fostered in gardens, and is vsed for arbors and to 

 couer banquetting houses in gardens ; it groweth not wilde in 

 Englande, that I can vnderstande of, though master Lyte be 

 of a different opinion : the white jasmine is common in most 

 places of Englande - " 



If we may believe a Tuscan tale, we owe our thanks to Cupid for 

 the distribution of this pretty shrub. We are told that a Duke 

 of Tuscany was the first possessor of it in Europe, and he was so 

 jealously fearful lest others should enjoy what he alone wished to 

 possess, that strict injunctions were given to his gardener not to 

 give a slip, nor so much as a single flower, to any person. To this 

 command the gardener would have been faithful, had not the god 

 of love wounded him by the sparkling eyes of a fair but portion- 

 less peasant, whose want of a little dowry and his poverty alone, 

 kept them from the hymeneal altar. On the birth day of his mis- 

 tress the gardener presented her with a nosegay ; and to render 

 the bouquet more acceptable, he ornamented it with a branch of 

 jasmine. The young nymph wishing to preserve the bloom of this 

 new flower, put it into fresh earth, and the branch remained green 

 all the year, and in the following spring it grew, and was covered 

 with flowers ; and it flourished and multiplied so much under the 

 maiden's cultivation, that she was able to amass a little fortune 

 from the sale of the precious gift which love had made her; when 

 with a sprig of jasmine in her breast, she bestowed her hand 

 and her wealth on the happy gardener of her heart. And the 

 Tuscan girls, to this day, preserve the remembrance of this ad- 

 venture, by invariably wearing a nosegay of jasmine on their 

 weddhi"- day; and they have a proverb which says, that a young 



