38 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 
of spikenard” with which Mary anointed our Lord in 
Bethany. Let us suppose the two statements to be cor- 
rect, and then what becomes of the protest against a 
supposed act of extravagance—“it might have been sold 
for three hundred pence”? The produce of a common 
weed of the country could never have acquired such a 
value, and the protest necessarily suggests that the oint- 
ment of spikenard was the produce of some far-distant 
Jand, and obtainable only with cost and difficulty. Such, 
indeed, is the case. The spikenard of the New Testament 
and of Canticles i. 12 and iv. 18 was imported into 
Palestine from the far East, the plant producing it being 
the Nardostachys Jatamansi of De Candolle, a plant spoken 
of by Dioscorides as the Nard of the Ganges—the Suimbu/ 
or Sunbul hindae of the Arabs to this day. Lavender, in- 
deed, grows in Syria, for the genus Lavandula is essentially 
Mediterranean, but it was not the spikenard of antiquity. 
The commonest uses of Lavandula connect it with the 
lavatory, both words deriving their origin from /avo, to 
wash ; the plant being as much prized in ancient times as 
now for its refreshing perfume and cleansing properties. 
Herein is the secret of the commercial importance of 
lavender, of which immense quantities are grown near 
London for the purposes of the perfumer. 
The common lavender (Lavandula veru) is the species 
grown in the Mitcham and other districts, as the oil yielded 
by its flowers, although not so large in bulk as that pro- 
duced by the flowers of Lavandula spica, is of much 
finer quality, and is alone employed in the manufacture 
of the finest perfumes. The oil obtained from the last 
mentioned of the two species is rather green in colour, and 
is commonly known as spike oil, or foreign oil of lavender. 
