*3) The Scented garden Qjg 



commonly made in the American colonies, and hence the 

 name Oswego tea, from Oswego, in the State of New 

 York. Incidentally, the taste of this ' tea ' is as delicious 

 as its fragrance. 



Hyssop is one of the small shrubs but too -seldom seen. 

 Yet the blue-flowered variety has a most attractive old- 

 fashioned look, and the leaves and flowers have a strong 

 aromatic scent. When kept well clipped, hyssop makes 

 an excellent dwarf hedge, but it does well only on a warm 

 light soil, for it is a native of the south of Europe. It 

 has been grown in Britain for centuries. Hyssop was 

 used both in cookery and medicine even in our grand- 

 mothers' days. The young tops and flowers were used to 

 flavour pottage, they were a common ingredient in 

 salads, and hyssop tea and syrup were accounted excellent 

 cordials. An old receipt book recommends hyssop in 

 warm ale, taken fasting in the morning, ' to cause an 

 excellent colour and complexion.' 



Winter savory (Satureia montana) has been grown in 

 Britain for many centuries, the date of its intro- 

 duction being unknown. There are about fourteen species 

 of this highly aromatic herb, but only two are commonly 

 grown in England — summer savory (5. bortensis), which 

 is a hardy annual, and S. montana, a hardy sub-shrub. 

 Virgil accounts them amongst the most fragrant of herbs, 

 beloved by bees, and therefore to be set near their hives. 

 In Shakespeare's time it was a familiar herb in this 



' * * Here's flowers for you, 



Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram.' 



On a poor dry soil savory flourishes, but on a rich soil it 

 frequently perishes in a severe winter. Both the summer 

 142 



