126 
THE JASMINE. 
JASMINUM OFFLCINALE. 
- “ Luxuriant above all 
The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets, 
The deep dark green of whose unvarnish’d leaf 
Makes more conspicuous and illumines more 
The bright profusion of her scatter’d stars.” 
The native country of our common white Jasmine 
is involved in some uncertainty: Linnaeus says it may 
be claimed by India and Switzerland; “ but,” observes 
Martyn, “ to the latter place it is confessedly exotic, 
although it is now so accustomed to the climate that it 
grows spontaneously on the rocks, particularly about 
Chiavenna.” Miller affirms it to be a native of Malabar 
and other places in Hindoostan, and some writers say 
it is wild about Canton. 
This shrub was cultivated by Gerarde in 1597; and 
he remarks that it was then “ common in England, 
being used to cover banqueting-houses in gardens and 
arbours.” 
