as is indicated by the name, which is compounded of two Latin words, ros, marinus, signifying sea-dew. Stachys fruticulosa Bieb. is a low evergreen shrub, from Caucasus, which seldom grows above 1 ft. in height; but which may be planted where it is desired to include as many species as possible in the arboretum. S. stenophylla Spr., from Spain, and S. palestina L., from Syria, grow about the same height. Stachys lavandulæfòlia is a native of the Levant, and produces its purple flowers in May and August. Lavándula Spica L., N. Du Ham., 3. t. 42., and our fig. 1140., the common lavender, is a well-known fragrant shrub, which, like the rosemary, has been long an inhabitant of British gardens. In deep, dry, calcareous soils, it will grow to the height of 3 ft., and form a compact hemispherical bush, flowering abundantly every year. The flowers are generally purple, but there is a variety with white flowers; and L. latifolia Ehrh., which is not uncommon in gardens, and which has lilac flowers, though treated by some as a species, is probably nothing more than another variety. The common lavender is a native of the south of Europe, the north of Africa, and the west of Asia, in warm, rocky, and barren places. It is particularly abundant in Provence; where, as the rosemary, the thyme, and the heath do in other districts, it gives a 1140 peculiar flavour to the honey, which is known as the miel de Provence, and which, after that of Narbonne, a kind that, as already mentioned, takes the flavour of rosemary, is considered the best in France. The lavender was held in high estimation by the Greeks and Romans, for its fragrance and aromatic properties; and it has been esteemed, on the same account, in Britain, and cultivated in gardens for its medicinal virtues from time immemorial. Medicinally, in the form of tincture, spirit, or essential oil, it is considered a powerful stimulant to the nervous system, and is, consequently, generally had recourse to in headachs and hysterical affections. The odour resides entirely in the essential oil, which is contained in every part of the plant, but principally in its spikes of flowers and flower-stalks, from which the oil is obtained by distillation. This oil, rectified, and again distilled, and mixed with spirits of wine, forms the well-known lavender water of the perfumers. The flowers, on account of their powerful aromatic odour, are frequently put into wardrobes among clothes, as an antidote to moths, particularly in the case of woollen stuffs. A few drops of the oil will serve the same purpose. So powerful are the effects of this oil, that, if a single drop of it be put in a box along with a living insect, the latter almost instantly dies. The lavender is cultivated in various parts of France; and it is so much hardier than the rosemary, that it is grown in quantities for perfumers, even in the neighbourhood of Paris. The driest soil, in the warmest situation, produces most oil; and, as the odour of this plant and the rosemary, as, indeed, of all the Labiàceæ, depends on the disengagement of their oil, of course it is most felt in hot days and during sunshine. The lavender has been long cultivated in the neighbourhood of London, and in other parts of England. Park Place, near Henley on Thames, is celebrated for its lavender plantations, which occupy between 40 and 50 acres. "The plants are raised from cuttings, which are slipped off and prepared by women in the autumn, and bedded in, in rows, in any spare piece of garden ground, where they remain for two years. The ground into which they are to be transplanted, being prepared by shallow trenchings or double ploughing, the plants are placed in rows 4 ft. apart, and at 2 ft. distance in the rows. For three or four years, a row of turnips or potatoes is grown between the rows of lavender; after which period, or about the time that the lavender plants in the rows touch each other, half of them are removed, leaving the field covered with plants 4 ft. apart every way. All the culture which is required afterwards is, keeping the soil free from weeds. In a few years the plants will have grown sufficiently to touch each other; and in this state they will remain from fifteen to twenty years, according to the nature of the soil: they are then taken up, and the ground cropped for two or three years with turnips and other field crops; after which the lavender plantation is renewed. The flowers are obliged to be either sold to a regularly licensed distiller, or distilled on the premises, on account of the excise laws. The oil from the plantation here is said to be of the best quality; doubtless from the calcareous nature of the soil." (Gard. Mag., ix. p. 661.) Miss Kent, in her Flora Domestica, mentions that the stalks of lavender, when stripped of their flowers, form an agreeable substitute for pastiles, and burn very well in the little vessels made for burning pastiles in. (p. 219.) The poets have not quite neglected the lavender. Shenstone, in his Schoolmistress, says, "And lavender, whose spikes of azure bloom Shall be erewhile in arid bundles bound, To lurk amidst her labours of the loom, And crown her kerchiefs clean with mickle rare perfume." A'cynos graveolens Link, and A. rotundifoliu 1141 Pers., the former a native of the Crimea, and the latter of Spain, are small thyme-like shrubs, seldom exceeding 1 ft. in height, which might be placed on rockwork. Gardoquia Hookeri Benth., Swt. Brit. Fl. Gard., 2. s. t. 271., is a small upright-branched shrub, with obovate pointed leaves; a native of South Carolina, where it was discovered by Mr. Alexander Gordon, a collector sent out by Mr. Charlwood, and was introduced in 1831. It is a delicate, but showy, little shrub, with brilliant scarlet flowers, and in all probability is half-hardy. Westringia rosmariniformis Sm., Bot. Rep., t. 214., is a native of New South Wales; introduced in 1791, and producing its pale blue flowers from May till August. It is a very eligible shrub for a conservative wall, from the rosemary-like character of its evergreen foliage. In the conservatory of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, it is 9 ft. high in a pot, and will doubtless grow much higher when trained against a wall. 1142 Sálvia officinalis L., N. Du Ham., 6. t. 25., and our fig. 1141., is a well-known suffruticose plant, which, though seldom seen above 2 ft. in height, yet, in deep sandy soil, will grow to the height of 5 ft. or 6 ft., and produce a stem as thick as a man's leg. We have seen plants of this size in Donald's Nursery, at Goldsworth, in Surrey; and we have seen hedges of sage on chalky soils, between 3 ft. and 4 ft. high. It is a native of the south of Europe, and has been known in British gardens from time immemorial, and when grown in masses, and abounding in racemes of flowers, it is very ornamental. The virtues of sage have been celebrated from time immemorial. The Latin name of the plant, Salvia, is derived from salvere, to heal; and one of the Latin poets asks, "Why should a man die who has sage in his garden?" According to Gerard, "No man needs to doubt of the wholesomeness of sage ale, being brewed as it should be with sage, scabious, betony, spiknard, squinanth, and fennel seeds." (Herbal, p. 766.) There are several varieties; one of which has the leaves variegated; another has the whole plant of a reddish hue; and one (fig. 1142.), common in the neighbourhood of Paris, and of which there are plants in the Horticultural Society's Gar- 1143 den, has leaves larger than those of the species. S. Hablitziana Willd., Bot. Mag., t. 1429., and our fig. 1143., is a native of Siberia, and appears tolerably dis tinct. S. pomifera L.; S. crética frutéscens pomífera Tourn., The 1144 Fl. Græc., 1. t. 15.; and our fig. 1144.; is a native of Candia; introduced in 1699. This sort of sage is described as growing 4ft. or 5 ft. high, and having pale blue flowers, like S. officinalis. branches are liable to be punctured by insects; in consequence of which protuberances are produced as big as apples, in the same manner as galls are produced upon the oak, and mossy excrescences upon the rose tree. Tournefort says the spikes of flowers of this kind of sage are 1 ft. in length, and that the odour of the plant partakes of the common sage and lavender. In the Isle of Crete, the common sage is said to produce the same excrescences as those of S. pomífera; and the inhabitants carry them to market there under the name of sage apples. 1145 This circumstance, and some half-hardy species, some of which will be noticed in Audibertia incana Benth., Bot. Reg., t. 1469., and our fig. 1146., is a curious little evergreen shrub, sent from Colombia, in 1827, by Douglas. It grows to the height of 1 ft. or 2 ft., and produces its pale blue flowers from July to September. There are plants in the Horticultural Society's Garden." App. I. Half-hardy ligneous or suffruticose Species of Labiàceæ. 1146 Lavándula Sto'chas L., Bar. Ic., 301., N. Du Ham., 3. t. 43., and our fig. 1149., is an elegant little evergreen shrub, with conspicuous lilac-coloured flowers. It is a native of the south of Europe, and has been known in gardens since the days of Gerard. It is commonly kept in green-houses'; but it will pass the winter on dry rockwork, with little or no protection. L. dentata L., Bot. Mag., t. 401., and our fig. 1146., is a native of Spain; and L. pinnata Bot. Mag., t. 400., and our fig. 1147., is a native of Madeira. Both sorts are curious in their leaves, and well deserve a place in collections. L. vtridis L'Hérit., Fl. Port., 1. t. 4., is a native of Madeira, with purple flowers, which are produced from May to July. Plectranthus fruticosus L'Hérit. Sert., 85. t. 41., and our fig. 1148., is a native of the forests near the Cape of Good Hope, an old inhabitant of our green-houses, and one of the few green-house plants that were found in old conservatories in France before the Revolution. In that country, among the old orange trees, pomegranates, olives, and oleanders, which are occasionally found lingering about the few old châteaux that still exist, Plectranthus fruticosus 1147 1148 may be found sometimes Sideritis cándicans There are several other sorts, from the Canaries, Spain, the Levant, &c., which will be found enume rated in the Hortus Britannicus, all of which would probably live on rockwork, with very little protection during winter. Leonotis Leonurus R. Br.; Phlomis Leonurus L., Bot. Mag., t. 478.; is a Cape shrub, which has been in the country since 1712. It grows to the height of 3 ft. or 4 ft., and is tolerably hardy. It bears showy scarlet flowers, but does not flower freely in Britain. Sphacele campanulata Benth., Bot. Reg., t. 1382, and our fig. 1151., is a shrub, from Chili, which grows to the height of 2 ft. or 3 ft., and produces its pale blue flowers in July and August. There is a plant in the Horticultural Society's Garden,, which has stood out at the foot of a wall since 1832. S. Lindley Benth., Bot. Reg., t. 1226., is another species which was introduced from Valparaiso in 1825. Dracocephalum canariense Com. Hort., 2. t. 41., is an old favourite, much esteemed for its fragrance. Trained against a wall, and protected during winter, it will, in two years, cover a space 4 ft. or 5 ft, high, and 5 ft. or 6 ft. broad; producing its pale purplish flowers in abundance from July to September. It may be raised from seeds early in spring, and turned out in the borders, like a tender annual. 1151 Salvia splendens Ker, Bot. Reg., t. 687.; S. formòsa Willd., Bot. Mag., 375.; S. fulgens Cav., Bot. Reg., 1356.; and S. Grahami Benth., Bot. Reg., t. 1370., and our fig.1151.; are all splendid suffruticose plants, natives of South America, which will live through the winter against a wall, and flower beautifully during summer; but, though technically shrubs, in prac tice they are best treated as herbaceous plants, kept in pots and pits, or green-houses, through the winter, and turned out into the open borders in spring. S. Grahami has stood in our garden, in the open border, through the severe winter of 1835-36, without any protection whatever. S. chamaedryoides Cav. is a dwarf species, the flowers of which are of a peculiarly intense and brilliant blue. It is frequently grown in England for planting out in beds in regular flower-gardens, where its flowers form a mass of beautiful blue. There are some Cape species, which are truly ligneous, that might be tried against a wall. Of these, S. aurea is one of the most splendid. Prasium majus L., Fl. Græc., t. 584., is a native of Spain, which has been in the country since the time of Gerard. It grows S ft. high, and produces its white-spotted flowers, some of which are fol lowed by pulp-covered seeds, from June to August. Prostanthera lasiánthos Lab., Bot. Reg., t. 143., is a native of New South Wales, which has stood in the Horticultural Society's Garden, at the foot of a wall, since 1831; but it was killed in the spring of 1836. Other half-hardy Species belonging to this order may be found in considerable numbers by looking over the lists in our Hortus Britannicus; but, with the exception of the salvias, the phlomises, and the lavandulas, we can hardly recommend any of them for culture, except in the warmer situations of the south of England, where they will grow with little or no protection. Where much labour and expense are required to protect tender plants during winter, only those that are truly ligneous ought to be made choice of; but where the climate is such as to render protection easy, a greater latitude may be allowed. CHAP. LXXXVII. OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER VERBENA CEAE. THIS order, which is closely allied to Labiàceæ, consists chiefly of plants natives of tropical countries; and, among these, the most remarkable is the Tectona grándis L., or teak tree, the oak of India. This tree, Mr. Royle informs us, has been planted as far north as Saharunpore, lat. 29° 57' N., or about the parallel of the Canary Islands; from which we should think it might be grown in the south of England against a wall. GENUS I. VTTEX L. THE CHASTE TREE. Lin. Syst. Didynàmia Angiospermia, Identification. Lin. Gen., No. 790.; Reich, No. 853.; Schreb., No. 1060.; Tourn., t. 373.; Juss., 107.; Gærtn., t. 56.; Mill. Icon., t. 275.; N. Du Ham., 6. p. 115.; Lindl. Nat. Syst. Bot., p. 278.; Don's Mill., 4. Synonymes. Gatilier, Fr.; Kenschbaum, Ger. Derivation. From vico, to bind, as with an osier; in reference to the flexibility of the shoots. Gen. Char., &c. Calyx short, 5-toothed. Corolla bilabiate; upper lip bifid, lower one trifid; middle segment of the lower lip the largest. Stamens 4. didynamous, ascending. Stigma bifid. Drupe containing a 4-celled nut. Cells 1-seeded. (Don's Mill., iv.)- Deciduous shrubs and trees, natives of the south of Europe, India, China, and North America. The only hardy species is a native of Sicily. 1. V. A'GNUS CA'STUS L. The officinal, or true, Chaste Tree. Identification. Lin. Sp., 890.; Lam. Dict., 2. p. 611.; Don's Mill., 4. Synonymes. Eleagnum Theophrasti Lob. Icon., 2. 138.; 4'gnus castus Blackw.; Arbre au Poivre, Spec. Char., &c. Leaves opposite, digitate, 7-5-lobed: leaflets lanceolate, 1152 |