DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 491 



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THE JASMINE. Jasminum. 



The name jasmine has been so interwoven with poetical asso- 

 ciations that it carries with it an aroma of literature as well as of 

 flowers. It is time-honored as one of the emblems of bridal 

 adornment, the blossoms being used to deck the hair. Moore 

 alludes to this custom in the oriental story of Lalla Rookh : 



"And brides as delicate and fair 

 As the white jasmine flowers they wear. 

 Hath Yemen, in her blissful clime." 



Cowper describes both the leaves and blossoms in the following 

 lines : 



" The deep dark greeu of whose unvarnished leaf 

 Makes more conspicuous and illumes the more, 

 The bright profusion of her scattered stars." 



The family embraces vines, shrubs, and trees, evergreen and 

 deciduous ; some of them hot-house plants, most of them half- 

 hardy vines, and a few hardy ones. The fragrance of their blos- 

 soms is their most charming trait. Most of the species will not 

 bear the winters in our country. Their most beautiful use is for 

 covering low walls or arbors in protected situations. 



The Common Jasmine, J. officinale, may be grown as a shrub, 

 but is really a noble climber in congenial climates ; as in its native 

 wilds in Asia, Georgia, and the mountains of Caucasus, it grows 

 forty to fifty feet in height, and attains similar dimensions in our 

 southern States. Its young wood is of a fine deep-green color, 

 and being quite abundant, gives the vine in winter the appearance 

 of an evergreen plant. Leaves pinnate, five to seven leaflets. 

 Flowers white, in June, July, and August, and exceedingly fragrant. 

 This jasmine requires winter protection in the northern States. 



The Jasmine midiflonim is a sort recently introduced ; with 

 fragrant yellow blossoms from May to October. Mr. Meehan re- 

 commends that it " be trained to a stiff stake and pruned twice a 

 year ; it then grows very compact, and will support itself after the 

 stake rots away, and makes one of the prettiest shrubbery bushes 

 imaginable." Requires protection in winter. 



