138 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



botli of Asia and Africa, diffusing its most 

 ■welcome odour when little expected by the tra- 

 veller. It grows wild too in sonthern Europe. 

 In our gardens it is too well known to need 

 description, and it is still brought to market for 

 the purposes to Avhich Shenstone describes his 

 school-mistress as applying it. 



' And lavender, whoso spikes of azure bloom, 

 Shall be erew liile in arid bundles bound, 

 To lurk amidst the labours of the loom, 

 And crown her kerchiefs clean, with mickle rare perfume." 



Fields of lavender are cultivated at Mitcham, 

 and Henley-on-Thames, as well as in Kent, 

 for the oil of commerce. An ounce of oil is 

 said to be yielded by sixty ounces of the 

 blossoms. 



There is no summer month from May to 

 September, in which we may not find some 

 species of phlox decking the garden. On the 

 prairies of America, as well' as in the woods of 

 Canada, it grows to a great height, and is very 

 abundant ; but most of the purple kinds, like 

 many flowers of the American forest, are scent- 

 less. The large white-flowered or scented phlox 

 {Phlox snaveoJens) is now, hoAvever, in bloom, 

 and has a very pleasant odour. A very pretty 

 variety of this species has pure white flowers, 

 with a pink star in the centre, gradually fading 

 as it approaches the edges. 



All the species of these handsome border 

 flowers are natives of America. The fine- 

 leaved phlox, [Phlox setacecp,) with flesh- 

 coloured blossoms, and its snoAv-white variety, 

 are among the earliest blooming species. They 



