THE ROSEMARY 
85 
The celebrated honey of Narbonne is thought to derive 
its peculiar excellence from the abundance of rosemary 
trees, which invite the bees of that country. The Nar- 
bonne honey almost rivals the fam.e of that of Mount Ida, 
which was said to be the food of Jupiter, and the excel- 
lence of which is attested by modern travellers. The 
Narbonne honey may be imitated by mingling an infusion 
of rosemary flowers with the common produce of the hive. 
This plant bears a very elegant name; the two Latin 
words which form Rosmarinus signifying “ the dew of the 
sea.” Its native place of growth is the neighbourhood of 
the sea-breezes ; and the sailor, as he reaches some of the 
rocks of southern Europe, is greeted by its fragrant breath, 
as by a sweet welcome from the land. It was once so 
common in Languedoc that it was used as the ordinary 
flrewood of the inhabitants; and it is still abundant there. 
It would not be supposed to be a flower of the desert ; 
yet travellers over the plains of Africa have found here 
and there a few sprigs, both of this plant and our garden 
lavender, and have welcomed them in a spot v/here vege- 
tation is so rare, and so usually different in its character. 
The plant went formerly by the name of Rosmarinum 
coronarium; “that is to say,” says Lyte, “ rosemarie, 
whereof they make crowns and garlands.” 
We have in the garden two species of the shrub — the 
common rosemary (Rosmiarinus offlcinalis), and a less fre- 
quent plant, a native of Chili, the Rosmarinus cliiiensis. 
The former species is thought to have been introduced 
into Britain by the monks, to whiom we are indebted for 
several plants. As they were during many years the only 
persons who attended to the medical properties of herbs, 
it is to their care in tending them, and dispersing them 
throughout the country, that we owe many valuable vege- 
tables. The garden of the monastery was better stocked 
than the garden of the palace ; and if the cultivators some- 
times attributed to plants, as in the case of rosemary, a 
degree of healing virtue which they did not possess, yet 
were they often made the means of invigorating the health 
of the patient, who knew no other remedy. 
The rosemary belongs to the labiate order of the botan- 
ist (Labiatess); and every reader who knows this plant, 
or the lavender, may recognise this order by the shape 
