442 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 6. 
The leaves and flowers of lavender contain a large amount 
of volatile essence; the quality for which the plant is mainly 
sought. Botanically, the lavender belongs to the same tribe 
as rosemary, sage, basil, and marjoram, in respect to the 
shape of the blossoms and the stem; but commercially, it 
has a history and position of its own. Lavender is cultivated, 
not for the weather-beaten flower-girl, who offers two bunches 
for a penny in our streets, but chiefly for the distiller and the 
chemist. The oil of spike, used for mixing with colours for 
painting, and also in varnish-making, is obtained from the 
species called French lavender. The well-known lavender- 
water is not simply the distilled essence, it is an alcoholic 
solution of the oil of lavender, to which other scents are 
frequently added. How a pennyworth of dried lavender 
leaves will diffuse a pleasant odour throughout a drawer of 
wholesome clean linen, let the tasteful housewife of many an 
industrious artisan declare. 
Liquorice is another of the plants which these herb- 
gardens produce. Glycyrhiza glabra is the very hard name 
which botanists have given to this simple plant; but botanists 
are fond of hard names. The common liquorice root, from 
which the well-known black extract is obtained, grows chiefly 
in the south of Europe, from the Crimea in the east, to 
Portugal in the west. One hundred pounds of the dried 
root yield about thirty pounds of the black extract, the 
Spanish liquorice of the shops. When the extract has been 
obtained, it is poured into rolls six or eight inches in length, 
which are bound with bay-leaves to prevent them from ad¬ 
hering together. The crude juice contains many extraneous 
substances, which are removed in the production of refined 
liquorice, a softer substance, prepared in more cylindrical 
form. The liquorice of the English herb-gardens, however, 
is the stick-liquorice of our acquaintance. It is grown in 
many parts of England where a rich black mould is to be 
met with, but it requires very careful cultivation. Near 
Pontefract it is cultivated chiefly for the preparation of a 
line kind of liquorice called Pontefract or Pomfret cakes. 
Mitcham liquorice is tilled for the sake of the long slender 
roots, which, at a proper age, and in a proper state, find 
their way to the wholesale druggists and to Covent Garden 
Market, and thence to the sick chamber, where a tickling 
cough has to be combated. 
Peppermint is another member of the interesting Mitcham 
family. Of the dozen or more species of mint known in 
England, peppermint is second only to the culinary mint or 
spearmint in value. It has a penetrating smell and a 
pungent taste; and its pretty little purple flowers deck the 
garden in August and September. The herb is sold to the 
druggists, and is by them distilled to obtain oil of pepper¬ 
mint. This oil, used alone, is a valuable aid to the physician; 
and, when re-distilled with pure alcohol, it produces spirit 
of peppermint. When the herb itself is distilled in a simpler 
way, it yields peppermint-water. 
The herb-shops and druggists’-sliops contain numerous 
plants and extracts from plants, which the every-day world 
knows nothing about elsewhere. Such substances as hore- 
hound, coltsfoot, angelica, and many others, do not seem to 
be generally recognised as plants at all—they are sweetstuff. 
Mitcham could, however, tell us a little about such sub¬ 
stances. Horehound, for instance, Gerarde tells us, “ bring- 
eth forth very many stalks, four-square, a cubit high, covered 
over with a thin whitish downiness,” is cultivated for the 
sake of the extract thence obtained, which is made up into 
lozenges and cakes and other forms. 
One word about the marketable features of these Mitcham 
herb-gardens. Some of the gardens contain those herbs 
and familiar plants which have their chief market at Covent 
Garden, and thence find their way to the dominions of the 
cook, whether “ Good Plain,” or “ Experienced French ; ” 
while others are filled chiefly with such herbs as require 
distillation before being brought to use. These latter are 
sold for the most part to the wholesale druggists in the city, 
who sell them in turn to the rectifiers and pharmaceutical 
chemists and others .—(Household Words.) 
AUSTRALIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
GREAT PARISIAN EXHIBITION. 
This world-wide Exhibition is not attracting that attention 
which it will “ when the green leaves come again,” and when 
peace shall be restored. It is enriched with contributions 
from the whole civilized portions of the earth ; but, on the 
present occasion, we shall only place before our readers a 
notice of those contributions forwarded to the Exhibition 
from our Australian Colonies. Previously to being shipped 
for Paris, the contributions were exhibited during November 
in the Museum Hall, at Sydney, and the Chairman of the 
Committee, Sir Alfred Stephen, the Chief Justice, thus 
descanted of them to the Governor and the visitors who 
attended on the first day of the Exhibition. 
“ The Commissioners appointed to superintend the col¬ 
lection and transmission to Paris of the natural and artificial 
products qf this colony, have at length the gratification of 
presenting to your Excellency and the public the result of 
their labours. They regret that it has not been more 
successful—more worthy of the enlightened efforts of your 
government, to develop and display the resources and in¬ 
dustry of this extensive territory ; seconded as those efforts 
have been, in a kindred spirit, by the liberality of the 
legislature. But it is hoped that sufficient will nevertheless 
be found to have been accomplished, to justify the course so 
providently taken; and, if all has not been attained that 
was expected, to stimulate exertion in future. 
“ Whatever comments may be provoked by the Exhibition 
which your Excellency this day meets us to open, I venture 
to protest against such as shall be founded on comparisons 
necessarily disparaging. This is still a young community, 
and the rich and varied productions of art, which readily 
adorn the industrial expositions of Europe, can obviously 
find here neither rivalry nor successful imitation. Neither 
has it been our object to delight merely the eye. 'While 
inviting and soliciting contributions in every branch of 
colonial manufacture, the Commissioners have rather directed 
their own exertions to the procuring of examples illustrating 
the natural resources of the country, rich as it is in mineral 
wealth, and in all else connected with a bounteous soil. 
The useful, accordingly, has in this collection predominance 
over the ornamental. And if, in every respect, it be not 
what might have been realised to the general indifference of 
our fellow-colonists—for it has amounted to more than want 
of sympathy—the deficiency must be attributed. 
“ Such as the Exhibition is, however, it has the merit of 
being, with very few exceptions, what it was intended to be ; 
one of Colonial productions exclusively. We have, indeed, 
by permission of the Trustees of the Museum, placed in the 
hall casts—the gift of Sir Charles Nicholson to the colony— 
of some of those noble statues, the triumphs of ancient Art, 
which grace the galleries of Florence and of Rome. There 
stands here also a modern work (the statue of the great 
Circumnavigator), which the colony cannot claim, left with 
us by a sculptor of no mean reputation. But the presence 
of these, not otherwise inappropriate, may be excused; 
and there are, I believe, no other contributions strictly 
foreign. The admirable medallions on the table, executed 
in this city by Mr. Woollier, may not unfairly disclaim 
that character. 
“ The carvings along the gallery, and its light and well 
constructed railing, rivalling in excellence of workmanship 
the cornice and pillars beneath, are all Colonial. The 
designs, by two of the artists of Sydney, for our proposed 
Exhibition Medals, the elaborately finished specimen of 
bookbinding, the admirable little model of a gold digger, the 
models of bridges and of flowers, the articles of saddlery 
and cabinet work, with the various paintings, busts, and 
drawings, specimens of picture frames,—all the articles, in 
short, not already excepted, which surround us, whether 
deserving or not of commendation, are at least colonial : 
intended to represent, simply,what our productions are; not 
what we would have them supposed, if admiration were the 
object, and not truth. 
“ Of the articles thus contributed, however, many are not 
intended for Paris ; and some would not be admissible, in 
fact, at that exhibition. On the other hand, there are 
several articles promised, or expected, which have not yet 
reached us :•—among them, models of the capacious Dry 
