XXV 



ON THE JASMINE 



WITH pretty flowers, vigorous growth, and, in the 

 case of most species, perfume to recommend them, 

 the Jasmines are in the way for being prime garden 

 favourites; but all are not hardy indeed the majority 

 have to be grown under glass. It would almost seem 

 as though some of the botanists wanted to make 

 Jasmines greenhouse rather than garden flowers, because 

 they are not satisfied with the known tender species, 

 but even claim our old favourite the winter-flowering 

 nudiflorum as an indoor plant. This cannot be per- 

 mitted. It might be possible to point to cases of the 

 plant being killed by frost (although I have never known 

 one), but it is quite certain that scores of others could 

 be quoted in which it has passed many years in the 

 open air, and remained unscathed by severe frost. 



The popular and botanical names of the Jasmine 

 are very similar. All we have to do is to remove the 

 final "e" of the garden name, and add "um" to be 

 as frigidly accurate as any dictionary. The derivation 

 of the name is not difficult to trace. Behind the English 

 Jasmine we have the French Jasmin, behind the latter 

 the Arabic Ysmyn and the Persian Yasmin or jasemin. 

 The pronunciation is Jaz-my'-num. 



It is too old a plant to have been named after the 

 illustrious " Jasmin," the barber poet of Provence, for 



