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CHAPTER VII 



THE AROMATIC HERBS 



t r II *s 



JL HE garden by meanes of a path shall be devided 

 into two equall parts ; the one shall contain the herbes 

 and flowers used to make nosegaies and garlands of, as 

 March violets, gilloflowers, small paunces, daisies, mari- 

 golds, daffodils, Canterburie bells, anemones, mugwort, 

 lillies and such like, and it may be called the nosegaie 

 garden. The other part shall have all other sweet smelling 

 herbes, as sothern wood, wormewood, rosemarie, jesamin, 

 balme, mints, penneroyall, hyssop, lavendar, basill, sage, 

 rue, tansy, thyme, cammomill, mugwoort, nept, sweet 

 balme, all-good, anis, horehound and others such like, and 

 they may be called the garden for herbes of a good smell.' 



The very word ' herb-garden ' suggests old-world peace 

 and fragrance. It conjures up a vision, as remote and yet 

 as familiar as memory, of a secluded pleasaunce full of 

 sunlight and delicious scents and radiant with the colours 

 and quiet charm of all the lovable old-fashioned plants 

 one so rarely sees nowadays. From Saxon days until the 

 end of the eighteenth century the herb-garden reigned 

 supreme in England, and now that we are reviving so 

 much that is old and pleasant, perhaps we shall be wise 

 enough to restore the herb-garden with its beautiful 

 colours and its fragrance to its former pride of place. 

 And what plants have such beautiful and such ' com- 

 fortable ' names as the denizens of the herb-garden ? 

 Comfrey, bergamot, melilot (how came so humble a 



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