302 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



" As there can be no disputing about taste, 

 I cannot take upon myself to say how far the 

 encomiums bestowed on the spikenard are 

 applicable to the Valerian ; all I can say is, 

 that if this root was the spikenard of the 

 Roman ladies, their lovers must have had a 

 very different taste from the youth of modern 

 Europe. 



The wild lavender, which grows so abun- 

 dantly in the south of France, is known to 

 be the bastard nard of the ancients. P. Po- 

 met, who was superintendant of the Mate- 

 ria Medica in the King s Gardens at Paris, in 

 1694, says, " Nous faisons venir, de plus, de 

 Languedoc et de la Provence, l'huile d'as- 

 pic, qui est tir6 des fleurs et des petites 

 feiiilles d'une plante que les Botanistes ap- 

 pellent Spica, she Lavendulamus, vel Nardus 

 Italica, a ut Tseudo-nardus, qui signifie Aspic, 

 ou Lavande male, ou Nard dTtalie, ou 

 Nard batard." 



The antiquity of the use of odoriferous gums 

 and perfumes, in the eastern nations, defies 

 our researches into its origin ; but it was the 

 opinion of ancient writers, that they were 

 first brought out of Elam, the country now 

 called Persia, and formed one of the earliest 

 articles of commerce with the Egyptians. 



