^ The Scented garden (jg> 



1 Southernwood is no plant for this country.' Southern- 

 wood was valued not only for its pleasant invigorating 

 scent and its medicinal qualities, but also as a dried herb 

 to strew in cupboards and drawers to keep away moths. 

 The clothes-moth dislikes the scent, and hence the old 

 French name for this herb, ' Garde-robe ' — for it literally 

 protected clothes. ' Sir ' John Hill gives a recipe for 

 sleeplessness which sounds a most pleasing way of using 

 southernwood : ' Clip four ounces of the leaves fine 

 and beat them in a mortar with six ounces of loaf sugar 

 till the whole is like a paste. Three times a day take the 

 bignesse of a nutmeg of this. It is pleasant and one thing 

 in it is particular, it is a composer and always disposes 

 persons to sleep.' 



There are many Artemisias for the scented garden — 

 Artemisia abrotanum, the ' lad's love ' of cottage gardens ; 

 A. canes cens, with lovely finely-cut silver foliage ; A. pede- 

 montana, like silver filigree, but only faintly scented ; 

 A. pontica, very strongly scented ; A. ludoviciana gna- 

 pbaloides, charming on a rockery ; A. Fillarsi, like a tiny 

 grey cypress ; A. argentea, with silver-grey foliage and 

 very fragrant ; A. frigida, a. Calif ornian species ; A. 

 valesiaca, a small silver-leaved shrub, very strongly 

 scented ; A. palmieri ; the stately A. lactiflora, a Chinese 

 herbaceous variety with spiraea-like plumes of scented 

 white flowers in August and September ; A. stelleriana> a 

 handsome trailing variety ; A. procera grows quite 6 feet, 

 but it is not very attractive. Best of all is A. tridentata, a 

 treasure we owe to the western United States. Indeed, 

 this curious looking species is one of the most fascinating 

 of all the aromatic plants. It grows from 6 to 8 feet high, 

 but even a young plant arrests attention owing to its 

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