258 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SWEET LAVENDEE. 

 By Miss H. 0. Philbrick, F.E.H.g. 



The common Lavender, like the Eosemary, has long been grown in 

 British gardens. It is a native of the South of Europe, the North of 

 Africa, and the West of Asia, in warm, rocky, and barren places. It 

 is particularly abundant in Provence, where — as the Eosemary, the 

 Thyme, and the Heath do in other districts — it gives a peculiar 

 flavour to the honey which is known as the Miel-de-Provence, and 

 which, after that of Narbonne (a kind that takes the flavour of Eose- 

 mary), is considered the best in France. 



We gather that the Lavender was held in high estimation by the 

 Greeks and Eomans for its fragrance and aromatic properties ; and it 

 is valued on the same account in Britain, as well as France, and 

 has been largely cultivated in fields and gardens for its medicinal 

 virtues from time immemorial. 



Medicinal value. — In the form of tincture, spirit, or essential oil, it 

 is considered a powerful stimulant to the nervous system, and is conse- 

 quently generally had recourse to in headaches, faintness, and other 

 affections. Lavender is a tonic, a restorative, carminative and warm- 

 ing. Some sixty years agO' it found a place as lozenges in the British 

 Pharmacopoeia, but it is there no longer, though old-fashioned chemists 

 still keep the lozenges. 



Its Fragrance. — The odour resides entirely in the essential oil. 

 which is contained in every part of the plant, but principally in the 

 flower-stalks, from which the oil is obtained by distillation, and when 

 mixed with spirits of wine forms the well-known Lavender water of 

 the perfumers. The flowers, on account of their powerful aromatic 

 odour, are frequently put into wardrobes among clothes as a preventive 

 against the attacks of moths, etc., more especially in the case of 

 woollen stuffs. A few drops of the oil will sei^e the same purpose. 

 So powerful are the effects of the oil, that if a single drop of it be 

 put in a box with a living insect the latter dies almost immediately. 



Cultivation of Lavender. — It is cultivated in various parts of France 

 as well as in our own country; but England carries the palm for the 

 best Lavender Water. The driest soil in the warmest situation pro- 

 duces the most oil. The Lavender has been long cultivated in the 

 neighbourhood of London, and in many counties of England. Many 

 years ago Park Place (near Henley-on-Thames) was celebrated for its 

 Lavender plantations, which occupied between forty and fifty acres. 

 There are big fields of it near Corfe Gastle, new but flourishing. All 

 the cultivation the plant requires after it is well-established in a field 

 is to keep it free from weeds. The flowers are obliged to be sold to 

 a regular licensed distiller, or to^ be distilled on the premises, on 



