THE AROMATIC HERBS OF THE FARM 



249 



measures) gave him the pleasant feeling that he had "done 

 something for it." 



Our forefathers were making use of the antiseptic proper- 

 ties of the aromatic oils, when they burned as incense the 

 herbs containing them to make the air of public halls more 

 wholesome. Sprigs of lavender were laid in clothes-presses, 

 both to repel moths and to impart a delicate odor to the 



garments that were stored 

 therein. Pulverized leaves 

 of many aromatic herbs 

 were put in scent-bags, and 

 pillows, and extracts from 

 them were used for per- 

 fuming baths and lotions, 

 and pomades and oint- 

 ments. All these were 

 ministrations to the human 

 sense of smell — the most 

 subtle of all our senses. 



A garden of scented 

 herbs was a household 

 necessity in that day, 

 before the advent of super- 

 abundant bottled scents, 

 when discriminating use 

 of herbs was intimately 

 bound up with all the 

 little refinements of life. It is still a mark of household 

 culture. But only a few of the many fine herbs available are 

 much planted, and of these, few are indigenous. Every 

 fertile country has its own fragrant herbs, and it were well if 

 every householder who plants a scented garden should seek 

 out the wild fragrant things native to his own locality — 

 things that the gardener's catalog knows not — and use them 



Fig. 96. Watermint. 



