AmDeZi87h7arin'}         Medicinal  Plants  at  Hitchin.  60 1 
cellence  of  their  productions,  Mr.  Perks  for  oil  of  lavender,  and  Mr. 
Ransom  for  essential  oils  and  pharmaceutical  products  generally. 
The  crop  at  present  grown  is  much  affected  by  the  presence  of  a 
disease  which  attacks  the  plants  just  as  they  are  beginning  to  flower, 
and  causes  them  to  wither  away  by  degrees.  This  disease  occurs  not 
only  at  Hitchin,  but  also  at  Mitcham  (in  fact,  it  Appeared  at  Mitcham 
before  it  was  known  at  Hitchin),  and  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
ascertain  at  all  the  localities  in  which  lavender  is  grown.  To  such  an 
extent  has  it  occurred  at  Market  Deeping  in  Lincolnshire  that  Mr. 
Holland,  who  formerly  cultivated  lavender  there,  has  now  ceased  to 
grow  it.  The  disease  prevailed  to  a  considerable  extent  this  year,  and 
on  this  account  and  by  reason  of  the  smallness  of  the  crop,  the  price 
of  oil  of  lavender  will  probably  be  unusually  high. 
The  history  of  the  cultivation  of  lavender  reveals  some  curious  facts 
which  may  perhaps  throw  a  little  light  upon  the  probable  cause  of  this 
disease.  Formerly  the  plant  was  propagated  by  slips  taken  from  the 
branches,  for  the  plant  does  not  ripen  seed.  Whether  or  not  it  has 
lost  the  property  of  ripening  seed  through  cultivation,  as  has  been  the 
case  with  the  rhubarb  plant  at  Banbury,  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascer- 
tain. 
In  the  winter  of  i860,  owing  to  a  very  severe  frost,  nearly  all  the 
lavender  plants  were  killed,  and  to  secure  a  crop  for  the  next  year, 
instead  of  taking  slips,  the  roots  were  parted,  and  from  that  time  to  the 
present  the  same  mode  of  propagation  has  been  continued.  About  this 
time  (i860)  the  disease  first  appeared. 
Plants  which  are  obtained  by  parting  the  roots  of  one  year  old  plants 
are  much  more  vigorous  and  less  liable  to  the  disease  than  those  obtainod 
by  dividing  the  roots  of  those  of  two  years'  growth. 
The  first  appearance  of  the  disease  is  indicated  by  the  leaves  of  one 
or  more  branches  drooping  and  withering  away  j  and  the  remainder  of 
the  plant  becomes  affected  by  degrees.  When  the  root  of  a  diseased 
plant  is  pulled  up  the  rootlets  appear  fewer  in  number  than  in  a  healthy 
plant,  and  the  woody  portion  from  which  the  rootlets  spring  is  often 
covered  with  a  white  filamentous  mycelium,  but  sometimes  only  pre- 
sents a  dark  color  and  wet  appearance  internally. 
The  appearance  of  the  disease  just  as  the  plant  has  begun  to  flower, 
and  the  fact  that  the  plants  now  come  to  maturity  in  about  three  years, 
whereas,  they  used  to  last  five  or  six  years,  seems  to  indicate  that  the 
