HERBA MENTH.E VIRIDIS. 479 



tions, or beyond the limit of the oHve. It is in fact a more southern 

 plant and more susceptible to cold, so that it cannot be cultivated in the 

 open soil in Britain except in sheltered positions. In Languedoc and 

 Provence, it is the common species from the sea-level up to about '2000 

 feet, where it is met by the more hardy L. veraj 



Lavandula Sjnca is distilled in the south of France, the flowering 

 wild plant in its entire state being used. The essential oil, which is 

 termed in French Essence d'Aspic, is known to English druggists as 

 Olewni Lavandulce sjiicw, Oleum Spic(v, or Oil of Spike. It resembles 

 true oil of lavender, but compared with that distilled in England it 

 has a much less delicate fragrance. This however may depend upon the 

 frequent adulteration, for we tind that flowers of the two plants {L. 

 vera and L. Spica) grown side by side in an English garden, are hardly 

 distinguishable in fragi'ance. Porta already even, in speaking of the 

 oil of lavender flowei-s, stated:" "e spica, frag rant) or excipitur, ut 

 illud quod ex Gallia provenit . . . ." — Lallemand (1859) isolated 

 from oil of spike a camphor which he believes to be identical with 

 common aimphor. 



Oil of Spike is used in porcelain painting and in veterinary 

 medicine. 



2. Lavandida Stcechas L. — This plant was well known to the 

 ancients ; Dioscorides remarks that it gives a name to the Stoechades, 

 the modern isles of Hieres near Toulon, where the plant still abounds. 

 It has a wider range than the two species of Lavandula already 

 described, for it is found in the Canaries and in Portugal, and eastward 

 throughout the Mediterranean region to Constantinople and Asia 

 Minor. It may at once be known from the other lavenders by its 

 flower-spike being on a short stalk, and terminating in 2 or 3 con- 

 spicuous purple bracts. 



The flowers, called Flores Stoechados or Stcechas arabica,^ were 

 formerly kept in the shops, and had a place in the London Pharma- 

 copoeia down to 174(5. We are not aware that they are, or ever were 

 distilled for essential oil, though they are stated to be the source of 

 True Oil of Spike.^ 



HERBA MENTHiE VIRIDIS. 



Spearmint. 



Botanical Origin — Mentha viridisJj. is a fragrant perennial ])lant, 

 chiefly known in Europe, Asia and North America, as the Common 

 Mint of gardens, and only found apparently wild in countries where it 

 has long been cultivated. It occurs occasionally in Britain under such 

 circumstances.' 



^ On the high land between Nice and ■'Pereira, Elem. of Nat. Med. ii. (1850) 



Turbia, I have observed the two species 1368. — Nor do we know if L. ?a«fl<a JBoiss., 



growing together, and that L. vera is in a very fragrant species closely allied to L. 



flower two or three weeks earlier than L. i!>/)JcaDC.,andanativeof Spain, is distilled 



Sirica.— 1). H. in that country. 



* De dlstillatione, Roma?, 1608. 87. 'Benthani, Handbook of the British Flora, 



^ The incorrectness of the term A i-ahica 1858. 413.— Parkinson (1640) remarks of 



is noticed by Pomet. How it c:une to be S'/>eare J/ j'n^ that it is "onely found planted 



applied we know not. in gardens with us." 



