JASMINUM OFFICINALE. — -THE JASMINE OR JESSAMINE. 
Class II. DIANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, JASMINES. THE JASMINE TRIBE. 
Essential Character. — Calyx divided or toothed, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, 
regular, hypocrateriform, with from 5 to 8 divisions, which lie laterally upon each other, being imbricated and 
twisted in aestivation. Stamens 2, arising from the corolla, enclosed within its tube. Ovarium, destitute of 
a hypogynous disk, 2-celled, with 1-seeded cells, the ovules in which are erect; style 1; stigma 2-lobed. 
Fruit either a double berry or a capsule separable in two. Seeds either with no albumen, or very little ; 
embryo straight; radicle inferior. — Shrubs, having usually twining stems. Leaves opposite, mostly compound, 
ternate or pinnate, with an odd one ; sometimes simple, the petiole almost always having an articulation. 
Flowers opposite, in corymbs. R. Br. 
The name of this plant is derived from the Greek, and signifies an agreeable odour. Nearly all the 
European languages have the same name for it. In French, it is Jasmin : in Italian, Gelsomino : Spanish, 
Jasmin : Dutch Jasmyn, &c. &c. In English it is sometimes familiarly called Jessamy, Jessima, and Gesse. 
There is an elegance in the Jasmine which added to its fragrance renders it an object of universal 
admiration. 
It grows naturally at Malabar, and in several parts of India, yet has been long inured to our climate, so 
as to thrive and flower extremely well, but never produces any fruit in England. It is easily propagated by 
laying down the branches, which will take root in one year, and may then be cut from the old plant, and 
planted where they are designed to remain : it may also be propagated by cuttings, which should be planted 
early in the autumn, and guarded against the effects of severe frosts. 
When these plants are removed, they should be planted either against some wall, pale, or other fence, 
where the flexible branches may be supported. These plants should be permitted to grow rude in the summer 
otherwise there will be no flowers ; but after the summer is past, the luxuriant shoots should be pruned off, 
and the others must be nailed to the support. 
When first introduced into France by some Spanish navigators, about 1560, it was greatly admired for 
the lightness of its branches and the delicate lustre of its star-like flowers. It was deemed necessary to place a 
plant so elegant and apparently tender, in the hot-house. It was then tried in the orangery, where it grew 
marvellously well ; and at length it was exposed in the open ground, where now it grows as freely as in its 
native soil, braving the most rigorous winters without requiring any care or attention. 
The flexible branches of this odoriferous shrub may be trained according to our pleasure. It will climb 
our palisades, and weave itself around our trellised arches, and cover the dead wall with an evergreen tapes- 
try, and run gaily along our terraces and our walks. It is also obedient to the scissors of the gardener, who 
forms it into bushy shrubs or grotesque figures ; and, in every form, it lavishes upon us an abundant 
harvest of flowers, which perfume, refresh, and purify the air in our groves.. 
Then how serene ! when in your favourite room, 
Gales from your jesmines soothe the evening gloom. 
CRABBE. 
These charming flowers offer a rich cup to the gay and painted butterfly, which is never seen to greater 
advantage than when it is sipping the perfumed honey from the delicate petals of the white jasmine. 
This beautiful plant grew in Hampton Court garden at the end of the seventeenth century; but, being 
lost there, was known onlyin Europe in the garden of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, at Pisa. From a jealous 
and selfish anxiety that he should continue to be the sole possessor of a plant so charming and so rare, he 
strictly charged his gardener not to give a single sprig, or even a flower, to any person. The gardener might 
have been faithful if he had not loved ; but, being attached to a fair, though portionless damsel, he presented 
her with a bouquet on her birth-day, and to render it more acceptable, ornamented it with a sprig of jasmine. 
The young maiden, to preserve the freshness of this pretty stranger, placed it in the earth, where it remained 
green until the return of spring, when it budded forth and was covered with flowers. She had profited by 
her lover’s lessons, and now cultivated her highly prized jasmine with care, for which she was amply repaid 
by its rapid growth. The poverty of the lovers had been a bar to their union ; now, however, she amassed a 
little fortune by the sale of cuttings from the plant which love had given her, and bestowed it, with her 
hand, upon the gardener of her heart. The young girls of Tuscany, in remembrance of this adventure, 
