LAVANDULA SPICA. 
95 
?ire natives of southern climates ;* two of these are in general culti- 
vation in this country, the Lavandula Spica, (broad-leaved lavender) 
and Lavandula Angustifolia (narrow-leaved): these two by some 
botanists are considered as varieties only, but Millerf and others 
class them as distinct species. 
The Lavandula Spica is a perennial shrubby plant, much branched, 
and rising to the height of four or five feet ; the younger branches 
and shoots are of a pale green, but the old woody part of the steiu 
is brown and rough. 
The leaves are numerous, linear, long, narrow, entire, sessile, and 
of a whitish green colour ; the flowers form terminating spikes upon 
the young shoots, of a bright purplish colour, and consist of 
interrupted whorls ; the calyx is ovate, and supported by a bractea ; 
the corolla consists of a cylindrical tube, divided at the mouth into 
two lips, the uppermost of which is the largest, and divided into 
two segments, the lower is trifid, and expands downwards ;j the 
filaments are four, enclosed within the tube of the corolla, and 
support small simple antherze j the germen is composed of four 
naked seeds, from which rises a slender style, supporting a bilobed 
stigma. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. The flowers of 
lavender have a strong fragrant smell, the leaves are weaker and less 
grateful ; the taste of both leaves aod flowers is somewhat bitter, 
aromatic and pungent, heating the mouth when chewed. An infusion 
of the flowers is fragrant, of a reddish colour, and grows black with 
sulphate of iron ; alcohol extracts the qualities of lavender completely ; 
by distillation in water, the leaves yield a small quantity of essential 
oil; the flowers a much larger proportion, 15lb. yielding nearly 
5 oz. of a very fragrant oil, of a greenish yellow. The foreign oil 
of lavender, or true oil of spike, is distilled from the tops of a 
different species or variety, by a quick fire. It is said, that a fevr 
drops of the oil of lavender rubbed on the binding of books prevent 
their becoming mouldy.J 
Medical Properties and Uses. Lavender has been an 
officinal plant a very considerable time, although we have no certain 
account given of it by the ancients. The medicinal virtues of 
lavender reside entirely in its essential oil, which experience proves 
to be a gentle stimulant of the aromatic kind. Dr. Cullen observes. 
* Nine species are enamerated in the Hort. Cant. 
+ Vide Gardener's Diet. 
t Graj's Elements. 
