120 THE HERB-GARDEN 



as sweet as any and far more uncommon. This 

 requires a little more care than the Blue-flowered, 

 and it is safer to plant it in spring than in autumn. 

 Lavender is not always easy to please ; it likes 

 rather a poor, sandy, even stony soil, wide, open 

 spaces, and plenty of sunshine. Loam over chalk 

 also suits it. Two important points to look after 

 are good drainage and entire freedom from damp in 

 winter. We propagate by cuttings, but some 

 adopt the plan of layering. After the third year 

 the Lavender bushes become straggly. Care must 

 be taken always to have young plants ready to 

 follow on. The Dwarf Lavender remains a nice 

 little compact shrub longer than any other, and it 

 has larger blooms, but for sweetness the ordinary 

 Lavenders of our gardens are perhaps the best. 

 They are Lavandula vera and Lavandula spica. 



In Spain there is a Lavender, L. stcechas, from 

 which the people of the country extract an oil by 

 the simple process of hanging it, flowers downwards, 

 in a closed bottle in the hot sunshine. They use 

 the oil to dress wounds. Lavender-water is perhaps 

 the cleanest smelling of aU refreshing scents, and it 

 is pleasant to know that better Lavender for the 

 market cannot be had anywhere than that produced 

 in our own breezy English Lavender-fields. 



