64 LAVENDER. 



most tapering into a petiole, clothed as well as the stem with 

 minute stellate hairs. The flowers are arranged from six to ten 

 together, in opposite whorl-like cymes, forming an interrupted, 

 elongated, terminal spike ; the bracteae, at the base of the cymes, 

 are ovate-cordate, acuminate, and of a brown colour ; those at 

 the base of the pedicels unequally bifid and subulate. The calyx 

 is tubular, bilabiate, thii teen-nerved ; the upper lip erect, roundish, 

 ovate, projecting beyond the lower lip ; the lower lip truncate, 

 with three obsolete teeth. The corolla is violet-coloured, with an 

 elongated tube, and a bilabiate limb ; the upper lip bifid, tomen- 

 tose externally ; lower lip with three ovate spreading segments, 

 shorter than the upper lip. The stamens are didynamous, and 

 inserted on the lower side of the tube of the corolla (resupinate) ; 

 the anthers small, peltate, ciliate, two-celled. The germen, or 

 ovary, is deeply four-lobed, surrounded at the ba«e by a disk, and 

 from its centre rises a slender style, terminated by an obtuse bifid 

 stigma. The fruit consists of four small nuts, umbilicate at the 

 base, enclosed in the persistent calyx, each containing a single 

 seed ; but seldom more than one comes to perfection. Plate 29, 

 fig. 2, (a) entire flower ; (b) corolla opened to show the stamens ; (<•) 

 calyx and pistil ; (d) pistil isalated; (e) calyx opened, showing one 

 developed and three abortive nuts. 



" The arid rocks of Provence and other southern countries of 

 Europe, afford this elegant shrub, which perfumes with its delicate 

 aroma, and enlivens by its beautiful flowers, the sterility that 

 surrounds it." It has been cultivated in the English garden from 

 the year 1568. It flowers from June to August. 



The systematic name Lavandula, whence the English Lavender, 

 is derived from lavare, to wash ; because the ancients used it as 

 a perfume when they took the bath. Some writers imagine that 

 this plant is the slocchas of the ancients ; it is most probably the 

 Pseudo-nardus of Pliny. 



There are two varieties of this species of Lavender, the white- 

 flowered (L. Spica alba), and the broad- leaved (L. Spica 

 latifoliu) ; the latter appears to be the male Lavender, as it was 

 erroneously called by the old botanists ; it has a more virose odour 

 than the other kinds. The plant before us is extensively cultivated, 

 for the sake of its flowering-spikes, at Mitcham, Henley-on- 

 Thames, and several other places in this country. 



Culture. — Lavender is easily propagated by slips or cuttings 



