THE AROMATIC HERBS OF THE FARM 249 
measures) gave him the pleasant feeling that he had ‘‘done 
something for it.” 
Our forefathers were making use of the antiseptic proper- 
ties of the aromatic oils, when they burned as incense the 
herbs containing them to make the air of public halls more 
wholesome. Sprigs of lavender were laid in clothes-presses, 
both to repel moths and to impart a delicate odor to the 
garments that were stored 
therein. Pulverized leaves 
of many aromatic herbs 
were putin scent-bags, and 
pillows, and extracts from 
them were used for per- 
fuming baths and lotions, 
and pomades and oint- 
ments. All these were 
ministrations to the human 
sense of smell—the most 
subtle of all our senses. 
A garden of scented 
herbs was a household 
necessity in that day, 
before the advent of super- 
abundant bottled scents, 
when discriminating use 
Fic. 96. Watermint. of herbs was intimately 
bound up with all the 
little refinements of life. It is still a mark of household 
culture. But only a few of the many fine herbs available are 
much planted, and of these, few are indigenous. Every 
fertile country has its own fragrant herbs, and it were well if 
every householder who plants a scented garden should seek 
out the wild fragrant things native to his own locality— 
things that the gardener’s catalog knows not—and use them 
