MEDICINAL HERBS. 329 



by sowing the seed in the spring. Transplant the young 

 plants to where they are to remain, or you may thin them 

 to six inches apart, and leave them in the seed-bed until 

 autumn before transplanting. It likes a dry, sandy soil, 

 and about eighteen inches space should be given to each 

 plant. 



Lavender, (Lavandula veraj) is a Labiate-flowered 

 undershrub, a native of the south of Europe, and hardy 

 south of New York. It is cultivated for its fragrant 

 spikes of flowers, which are used for the distillation of 

 lavender-water. Being dried, and put up in paper bags, 

 they are also used to perfume linen. Both flowers and 

 leaves are. very aromatic. It has an agreeable pungent 

 bitterness to the taste, and its medicinal properties are 

 stimulant, cordial, and stomachic. There are three varie- 

 ties the narrow-leaved, one sort with blue and the other 

 with white flowers, and the broad-leaved lavender. 



Lavender may be propagated by seeds, slips, or cuttings. 

 Sow the seed in drills ten inches apart, in spring, and 

 transplant the next spring to a dry soil of but medium 

 richness, and it will be more highly aromatic. Give each 

 plant about two feet of space ; for drying, gather the 

 flowers before they begin to turn brown at the lower part 

 of the spike. 



Liquorice, (Grlycyrrhiza glcibra^ is a Leguminous, 

 hardy perennial, from Southern Europe, the saccharine 

 juice of the fleshy root of which is useful in catarrhs, 

 fevers, &c. Its taste is sweet and mucilaginous, and it is 

 much used as a demulcent, either alone or combined with 

 other substances. 



A few roots of this plant, when once started, will be of 

 very little trouble in the garden. The plant is propagated 

 early in spring, by cuttings of the roots. Dig the soil at 

 least two feet deep. Take the horizontal roots of estab- 

 lished plants, five or six inches long. Every shoot planted 



