•^ The ^Aromatic Herbs $£ 



its sweet scent is a treasure in the herb-garden. Old 

 names for it were Sweet Bracken and Sweet Fern. 

 Its big fleshy root is very sweet and aromatic, and the 

 bright green aromatic leaves are still used in salads in 

 Italy. Bee-hives were formerly smeared with it, balm 

 being also commonly used for this purpose, for it was 

 believed that the scent of both these herbs was par- 

 ticularly pleasing to bees. Costmary, or Maudeline 

 (Balsamita vulgaris), is, I think, the only plant grown 

 in our gardens called after Mary Magdalene. Gerard 

 says, ' The whole plant is of a pleasant smell, savour or 

 taste ' ; and Parkinson says it was much used ' with other 

 sweet herbes to make sweete washing water : the flowers 

 also are tyed up with small bundels of Lavender toppes, 

 these being put in the middle of them, to lye upon the 

 toppes of beds, presses, etc., for the sweete scent and 

 savour it casteth.' 



Where indeed shall we find scents to equal those in the 

 herb-garden ? What bought perfumes can rival those of 

 lavender, lad's love, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, lovage, 

 sweet Cicely, bergamot and balm ? They are so full of 

 sunshine and sweetness that it seems there can be no tonic 

 like them. Small wonder that in former days herbs were 

 so largely used to ward off black magic, and did we but 

 know how to use them aright, who shall say they would 

 not be as powerful to-day to dispel gloom and depression ? 

 Anyone who is familiar with the fascinating old herbals 

 knows how full they are of recipes, for potions concocted 

 from herbs to cure melancholy and * to make one merry.' 

 We may laugh at these quaint recipes but is not this mere 

 ignorance on our part ? We have neither the under- 

 standing hearts nor the wit to realize all the knowledge 



*SS 



