VI 



ROSEMARY 

 Rosmarinus officinalis 



STIFF stems rising up straightly like so many 

 towers, clothed with leaves so narrow as to be 

 almost needle-like, showing swift colour contrasts 

 of dark green and grey, stems and leaves that persist 

 unchanged, season in, season out, winter as well as 

 summer ; small flowers that add an unobtrusive tinge 

 of purple to the upper part of the branches in spring- 

 time and autumn that is the Rosemary. But not the 

 whole Rosemary, nor yet even the most striking part 

 of it ; this honour is reserved for the fragrant and 

 refreshing scent so indissolubly associated with the 

 plant that one cannot think of it apart from its odour. 

 It is a fact well established by science to-day that 

 scent in any form more readily awakens an association 

 of ideas than any other stimulant of sensation, that it 

 is pre-eminently the vehicle of memory : 



" sweet scents 



Are the swift vehicles of still sweeter thoughts, 

 And nurse and mellow the dull memory 

 That would let drop without them her best stores." 



(Savage Landor.} 



43 



