ON THE JASMINE 233 



Jacques Boe" was born in 1798, and the Jasmine has 

 been known in British gardens since 1548. " Jasmin/' 

 indeed, borrowed his nom de guerre from the plant, and 

 sang his connection with the "stem of Jesse." Our 

 flower is often the " Jessamine," and sometimes even the 

 "Jesse." 



The Jasmine does not seem to have attracted the 

 attention of Shakespeare, which is somewhat surprising, 

 for it would be known in his day. Gerard refers to 

 it as in general use for covering arbours, and Shake- 

 speare knew plants well, as almost every play of his 

 teaches us. But Spenser alluded to it, and later poets, 

 such as Cowper and Moore, gladly wove it into their 

 mellifluous verse. The former gave a striking portrait 

 of the flower in the lines 



" The Jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets, 

 The deep dark green of whose unvarnished leaf 

 Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more 

 The bright profusion of her scattered stars." 



Moore, with lighter touch, deftly conveys a charming 

 picture of childish innocence and rural beauty 



" When, o'er the Vale of Balbec winging 

 Slowly, she sees a child at play, 

 Among the rosy wild flow'rs singing, 

 As rosy and as wild as they ; 

 Chasing, with eager hands and eyes, 

 The beautiful blue damsel-flies, 

 That fluttered round the Jasmine stems, 

 Like winged flow'rs or flying gems." 



The sweet white Jasmine is known to botanists as 

 Jasminum officinale, and they tell us that it came from 

 the East Indies. Further, they give us and we are 

 grateful to them for it a coloured plate of the flower 

 in the Botanical Magazine, t. 31. Neither in examining 



