1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



375 



tack our most valuable trees— viz, apple trees — as 

 though they owed mankind a peculiar grudge. 

 While looking over the third volume of- the old 

 New England Farmer, published in 1825, I think, 

 after something relative to the canker worm, I 

 found on page 327 an article, recommending locust 

 trees, planted thickly through the orchard, as a 

 remedy for their ravages ; after reading this I re- 

 membered that on my father's farm there was a 

 small locust grove with two or three apple trees 

 standing almost in contact with it. Upon exami- 

 nation, these trees proved to be equally infested 

 with the rest, thus disproving that theory. 



Should you think it worth while to insert this, 

 it may lielp some who, like myself, may be referr- 

 ing to old papers, and find this suggestion, and may 

 not, as I had, have the means of judging of its 

 merits. s. g. e. 



Chester, June, 25lh, 1853. 



THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE 

 MIGNONETTE. 



The following, written by Dennis Murray, one 

 of the best gardeners in or around Boston, for the 

 Journal of Agriculture, will be read with inter- 

 est : 



It is now an age since this fragrant weed of 

 Egypt first perfumed the European gardens, and 

 it is so tar climated, as to spring from seed of its 

 own sowings. The Reseda Odorata first found its 

 way to the south of France, where it was wel- 

 comed by the name oi Mignonette, (Little Darling,) 

 which was found too appropriate for this sweet 

 little flower to be ever afterwards exchanged for 

 any other. By a manuscript note in the library 

 of the late Sir Joseph Banks, it appears that the 

 seed of the mignonette was sent in 1742, by Lord 

 Bate man, from the Royal Garden at Paris, to Mr. 

 Richard Bateman, at Old Windsor ; butweshould 

 presume that this seed was not dispersed, and 

 perhaps not cultivated beyond Mr. Bateman's gar- 

 den, as we find that Mr. Miller received the seed 

 from Dr. Adrian Van Royen, of Leyden, and cul- 

 tivated it in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea in the 

 year 1752. From Chelsea it soon got into the 

 gardens of the London florists, so as to enable 

 them to supply the metropolis with plants to fur- 

 nish out the balconies, — a fact noticed by Cowper, 

 who attained the age of twenty-one in the year 

 that this flower first perfumed the British atmos- 

 phere by its fragrance. The author of the Task 

 soon afterwards celebrates it as a favorite plant in 

 London — 



the sashes fronted wiili a range 



Oforan^e, myrtle, or the fragrant weed.' 



The odor which this little flower exhales is 

 thought by some to be too powerful for the house; 

 but even those persons, we presume, must be de- 

 lighted wicli the fragrance which it throws from 

 the balconies into the streets, giving something 

 like a breath of garden air to the "close-pent man" 

 whose avocations will not permit a ramble beyond 

 the squares of the fashionable part of the town. 

 To such persons it must bo a lusuriims treat to 

 catch a few ambrosial gales on a summer evening, 

 from the heated pavement where offensive odors 

 are but too frequently met with. We have fre- 

 quently found the perfume of the mignonette so 

 powerful in some of the better streets, that we 

 have considered it sufficient to protect the inhabi- 



tants from those effluvia that bring disorder with 

 them in the air. This genus of plants, of wliich 

 there are a good many species, was named Rcsca- 

 da by the ancients, from resedare, to assuage, be- 

 cause some of the species were esteemed good for 

 mitigating pain. 



We find that this sweet Reseda hns crept into 

 the armorial bearings of an illustrious family of 

 Saxony, by the following romantic tale ; the Count 

 of Walsthim was the declared lover and intended 

 spouse of Amelia de Nordbourg, a young lady pos- 

 sessing all the charms necessary for the heroine 

 of a modern novel, excepting that she took delight 

 in creating little jealousies in the breast of her 

 destined husband. As the beautiful Amelia was 

 an only child of a widowed mother, a female cous- 

 in, possessing but few personal charms, and still 

 less fortune, had been brought up with her from 

 inflmcy as a companion, and as a stimulus to her 

 education. The amiable and humble Charlotte 

 was too insignificant to attract much attention in 

 the circles in which her gay cousin shone with so 

 much splendor, which gave her frequent opportu- 

 nities of dispensing a part of that instruction she 

 had received on the more humble class of her own 

 sex. Returning from one of those charitable vis- 

 its and euteiiug the gay saloon of her aunt, where 

 her entry or exit was now scarcely noticed, she 

 found the party amused in selecting flowers, while 

 the couut and the ot'uer beaux were to make vers- 

 es on the choice of each of the ladies. Charlotte 

 was desired to make herselection of a flower. The 

 sprightly Amelia had taken a rose, others a carna- 

 tion, a lily, or the flower most likely to call forth 

 compliment ; and the delicate idea of Charlotte in 

 selecting the most humble flower, by placing a 

 sprig of mignonette in her bosom, would proba- 

 bly have passed unnoticed, had not the flirtation 

 of her gay cousin with a dashing colonel, who 

 was more celebrated for his conquests in the draw- 

 ing-room than in the field of battle, attracted the 

 notice of the Count, so as to make his uneasiness 

 visible ; which the amiable Charlotte, ever stu- 

 dious of Amelia's real happiness, wished to amuse ; 

 and, to call back the mind of her cousin demand- 

 ed the verses for the rose. The Count saw this af- 

 fectionate trait in Charlotte'sconduct, took out his 

 pencil and wrote for the rose — 



"Elle ne vit qu' un jour, et ne plait qu'un momeiit." 



which he gave to the lovely daughter, at the same 

 time presenting the humble cousin with this line 

 on the mignonette : — 



"Vos qualites surpassant vos charmes," 



Amelia's pride was aroused, and she retaliated 

 by her attention to the Colonel and neglect of the 

 Count, which she carried so far as to throw herself 

 into the power of a profligate, who brought her to 

 ruin. The Count transferred his affections from 

 beauty to amiability, and, rejoicing in the ex- 

 change and as well to commemorate the event 

 which brought about his happiness and delivered 

 him from a coquette, he added a branch of the 

 sweet Reseda to the ancient arms of his family, 

 with the motto : 



Your qualities surpass your charms. 



The mignonette is transformed into a perennial 

 shrub, which dispenses its odors at till season of 

 the year, by the following simple treatment : ^ A 

 young plant should be placedin a garden pot, with 



