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XXXVIII. Observations on, and Account of the Cultivation 

 of, the Tree Mignonette. Ey Joseph Sabine, Esq. 

 F. R. S. $c. Secretary.. 



Read July 7th, 1818. 



The Reseda odorata of Linn^us, so well known as a hardy 

 annual plant in our gardens, under the name of Mignonette, 

 is a native of the northern parts of Africa, having been found 

 wild in Egypt and Barbary, from whence it was brought to 

 the south of France. Miller, in the sixth Edition of his 

 Gardeners Dictionary, published in 1752, states, that he 

 had it then in cultivation in the Chelsea Garden, having re- 

 ceived the seeds from Professor Van Roy en, of Ley den ; 

 but its introduction into our flower gardens was through 

 the intervention of the late Lord Bateman, who brought it 

 from France soon after the period it was first received by 

 Miller. With Lord Bateman the appellation of Migno- 

 nette originated ; pleased with the appearance and fragrance 

 of the plant, he gave to it this name of endearment, by 

 which it is not known in France, the writers and gardeners 

 of that country merely calling it le Reseda odorant. A re- 

 presentation of it was published in 1758, by Miller, in his 

 Figures of Plants, plate 217, who there, as well as in the 

 sixth edition of his Dictionary, calls it Mignonette dEgypte ; 

 it has also been more recently figured ir> the Botanical Ma- 

 gazine, plate 29. 



