LAV 



CfR., BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



LAV 



19 



soil. It was formerly in use to make edgings to borders, but 

 it grows too large for the purpose ; if often cut in dry wea- 

 ther it is subject to decay, and, in hard winters, some of the 

 plants will be killed : it should therefore be planted in beds 

 in the kitchen-garden, where the soil is driest. 



2. Lavandula Stoechas; French Lavender. Leaves sessile, 

 linear, tomentose, rolled back at the edge; spikes concracted, 

 comose ; bractes subtrilobate. It has a low thick shrubby 

 stalk, about two feet high, sending out woolly branches the 

 whole length ; leaves about an inch long, hoary, and pointed, 

 of a strong aromatic scent. The branches are terminated 

 with scaly spikes of purple flowers, four-cornered, and an 

 inch in length ; and at the top a coma, or small tuft of purple 

 leaves. The whole plant has a very strong aromatic agree- 

 able odour. There is a variety with peduncles three times 

 the length of those in the common Stoechas, and naked ; 

 the spikes are longer, and not so thick ; and the leaves of 

 the coma are more numerous, longer, and of a brighter pur- 

 ple colour. Both these vary to purple and white in the 

 corolla, but the most common colour is blue. Native of the 

 south of Europe; flowering from May to July. This plant, 

 which our old authors call Sticadone, Sticados, and Sticadore, 

 from the Italian Sticade, on account of its being found on the 

 islands called Stoechades, may be cultivated by sowing the 

 seeds upon a bed of light dry soil in March. When they 

 come up, clear them from weeds until they are two inches 

 high, and then remove them. For this, prepare a spot of 

 light dry ground, lay it level, and tread it out into beds, into 

 which set the plants, at five or six inches' distance every way, 

 watering and shading them until they have taken root. If the 

 winter should prove severe, cover them with mats or peuse- 

 haulin. In March or at the beginning of April in the follow- 

 ing spring, remove them into the places where they are to 

 remain, taking a warm moist season, if possible, for this pur- 

 pose, and not letting them remain long above ground. The 

 soil should be warm dry sand or gravel ; and the poorer the 

 soil is, the better will this plant endure the winter. In a rich 

 moist ground it will not produce so many flowers, nor will 

 they have so strong an aromatic scent. It may also be in- 

 creased by slips or cuttings; but the plants raised from seeds 

 are by far the best. 



3. Lavandula Viridis ; Madeira Lavender. Leaves sessile, 

 linear, wrinkled, villose, rolled back at the edge ; spike 

 comose ; bractes undivided. It differs from the preceding 

 by its wrinkled villose leaves, which are green, and not hoary 

 as in that. It flowers from May to July Native of the island 

 of Madeira. This, and most of the following sorts, require 

 the protection of a green-house. They may be increased by 

 slips or cuttings ; and also by. seeds, but they do not all pro- 

 duce seeds in our climate. 



4. Lavandula Dentata ; Tooth-leaved Lavender. Leaves 

 sessile, linear, pectinate-pinnate ; spike contracted, comose. 

 It has a woody stalk, two or three feet high, with four-cor- 

 nered branches on every side the whole length. The leaves 

 have a pleasant aromatic odour, and warm biting taste. The 

 flowers are produced in scaly spikes, at the ends of the 

 branches, on long naked peduncles. It flowers from June to 

 September. Native of Spain and the Levant. This is pro- 

 pagated by slips or cuttings, planted in April, and treated 

 as directed for the first and second sorts. They will take 

 root very freely, but must be transplanted into pots, that 

 they may be sheltered from severe frost in winter, especially 

 while young. When they have acquired strength, some may 

 be planted in a warm situation, on a dry soil, where, being 

 prevented from growing; too vigorously, they will endure cold 

 better than in richer ground. 



VOL. n. 67. 



| 5. Lavandula Pinnata ; Pinnated Lavender. Leaves peti- 

 oled, pinnate ; leaflets wedgeform ; spike imbricate. This 

 is a low, very branching shrub, with a brownish bark; pedun- 

 cles leafless ; corolla purple or pale violet. The flowers have 

 a sweet smell, but the leaves have very little smell or taste. 

 It flowers from April to October. Native of Madeira. 



6. Lavandula Multifida; Cut-leaved Canary Lavender. 

 Leaves petioled, pinnate ; leaflets decursively pinnatifid ; 

 spike quadrangular; angles spiral. Corolla varying from blue 

 to white. The leaves are hoary, opposite, cut into many 

 divisions to the midrib ; these segments are again divided 

 into three blunt ones. There is a variety with an upright 

 branching stalk, four feet high, and flowers smaller than the 

 common Lavender. It is a native of the Canary islands. 

 Sow the seeds on a moderate hot-bed, in the spring. When 

 the plants come up, put each into a separate small pot filled 

 with light earth. Plunge the pots into another hot-bed; and 

 in the beginning of June inure them to the open air, and 

 towards the end of the month place them in a sheltered situa- 

 tion. In July the flowers will appear, and, if the autumn 

 prove warm, the seeds will ripen in September ; but when 

 they do not perfect seeds, the plants may be preserved through 

 the winter in a good green-house, where t'hey will produce 

 flowers and seeds most part of the season. 



7, Lavandula Abrotanides; Southernwood-leaved Canary 

 Lavender. Leaves doubly pinnatifid, with linear segments, 

 nearly smooth ; spike linear, mostly branched and interru pted ; 

 bractes smoothish, ovate, with approximated ribs. Native 

 of the Canaries. 



Lavatera ; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order Poly- 

 andria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth double; 

 exterior one-leafed, trifid, obtuse, short, permanent; interior 

 one-leafed, half five-cleft, more acute, more erect, permanent. 

 Corolla : petals five, obcordate, flat, spreading, afhxed below 

 to the tube of the stamina. Stamina : filamenta numerous, 

 coalescing below into a tube, loose above, gaping at the tip 

 and surface of the tube; antherte reniform. Pistil: germen 

 orbicular; style cylindric, short ; stigmas several, (seven to 

 fourteen,) bristly, length of the style. Pericarp: capsule 

 orbicular, composed of as many cells as there are stigmas, 

 bivalve, and articulated in a whorl round the columnar recep- 

 tacle, at length falling off. Seeds: solitary, reniform. ES- 

 SENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: double, outer trifid. Arils: 

 very many, one-seeded. The species are, 



1. Lavatera Arborea; Tree Mallow. Stem arboreous; 

 leaves seven-angled, hairy, plaited; peduncles clustered, one- 

 flowered, axillary ; outer calices larger. It rises in gardens 

 with a strong thick stalk to the height of eight or ten feet, 

 dividing into many branches at the top ; flowers mostly in 

 pairs, sometimes three together, on upright peduncles, an 

 inch and half in height ; corolla purplish-red, with dark 

 blotches at the base, spreading, bell-shaped ; seeds kidney- 

 shaped, ash-coloured. Native of Italy, the Levant, and Bri- 

 tain. With us it is smaller than it appears in the gardens ; 

 and is found near Hurst Castle, upon Portland Island, and 

 Denny Island near Bristol; in Cornwall and Devonshire; 

 at Teignmouth ; upon the rocks of Caldey Island; in 

 Anglesea, and other parts of Wales ; upon the 'Basse Islands 

 near Edinburgh ; and upon Inch Garvie and Mykrie Inch 

 in the Firth of Forth. It flowers from June or July to 

 September or October. This, with all the other shrubby 

 sorts, are easily propagated by seeds, which should be 

 sown in the spring, upon a bed of light earth ; and when 

 the plants are about three or four inches high, they should 

 be transplanted to the places where they are designed to 

 remain ; for, as they shoot out long fleshy roots which have 



