VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 451 



Lavender (Lavandula vera) 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 cut- 

 tings. 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 (GlyeyrrJiiza glabra) is a Leguminous, hardy 

 perennial from Southern Europe, the saccharine juice of 

 the fleshy root of which is useful in catarrhs, fevers, etc. 

 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 

 should have at least two eyes; make the rows three feet 

 apart, and the plant twelve to fifteen inches in the row, 

 and cover the roots well with mould. Onions,, lettuce, or 

 radishes may be grown between the rows the first year; 

 afterwards keep the soil free from weeds, dress the sur- 

 face with manure every autumn, and at the end of the 



