222 MIGNONETTE. — RESEDA ODORATA. 



MIGNONETTE.— RESEDA ODORATA. 



the fragrant weed, 



The Frenchman's darling."— Cowper. 



It is only one age since this fragrant weed of Egypt first perfumed 

 tlie European gardens, yet it has so far naturalized itself to our climate 

 as to spring from seeds of its own scattering, and thus convey its 

 delightful odour ft-om the parterre of the prince to the most humble 

 garden of the cottager. 



In less tliau another age we predict (without the aid of Egyptian 

 art) that the children of our peasants will gather this luxurious little 

 plant amongst the wild flowers of our hedge-rows. 



The Reseda Odorata first found its way to the south of France, 

 where it was welcomed by the name of Mignonette, Little-darling, 

 which was found too appropriate for this sweet little flower to be ex- 

 changed for any other. By a manuscript note in the library of the 

 late Sir Joseph Banks, it appears that the seed of the Mignonette was 

 sent in 1742, by Lord Bateman, from the Royal Garden at Paris, to 

 Mr. Ricliard Bateman, at Old Windsor ; but we should presume that 

 tliis seed was not dispersed, and perhaps not cultivated beyond Mr. 

 Bateman's garden, as we find that Mr. ililler received the seed from 

 Dr. Adrian van Royen, of Leyden, and cultivated it in the Botanic 

 Garden at Chelsea, in the year 1752. From Chelsea it soon got into 

 the gardens of the London florists, so as to enable them to supply the 

 metropolis with plants to furnish out the balconies, which is noticed 

 by Cowper, who attained the age of twenty-one in the year that this 

 flower first perfumed the British atmosphere by its fragrance. Tlio 

 author of the Task soon afterwards celebrates it as a favourite plant in 

 London — 



" the sashes fronted with a ransre 



Of orange, myrtle, or the fragrant weed." 



The odour which this little flower exhales is tliought by some, 

 whose olfactories are delicate, to be too powerful for the house, but 

 even those persons we presume must be delighted by the fragrance 

 which it throws from the balconies into the streets of London, giving 

 something like a breath of garden air to the " close-pent man," whose 

 avocations will not permit a ramble beyond the squares of the fashion- 

 able part of the town. To sucli it must be a luxurious treat to catch 

 a few ambrosial gales on a summer's evening from tlie heated pave- 

 ment, where offensive odours are bi\t too frequently met witli, notwith- 

 standing the good regulations for cleansing the streets and the natural 

 cleanliness of the inhabitants in general. We have frequently found 

 the perfume of the Mignonette so powerful in some of the better streets 

 of London, that we have considered it sufficient to protect the inha- 

 bitants from those efHuvias which bring disorders in the air. The per- 

 fume of JMignonette in the streets of our metropolis reminds us of the 

 fragrance from the roasting of coffee in many parts of Paris, without 

 which some of their streets of business in that city would scarcely be 

 endurable in the rainy season of the year. 



