LAVENDER, Lacamdula ver

A MERE word will often transport us into flowery fields and restore happy days that have long since fled. To many of the older sort the word lavender is as good as a charm, if it only recalls the old plaintive strain of once familiar street music. This tame-looking, grey-green, stiff, sticky, and immovable shrub holds as much poetry in its wiry arms as would fill a big book; but that is no matter if it has helped to fill a heart with gladness, for the filling of a book is but a piece of mechanical trickery. A most famous plant is the lavender, as may be seen by reference to any of the older herbalists, more especially Parkinson, Gerarde, and Johnson. In a notice of the plant in a popular work occurs-what is very common in "popular works"-a showy but most egregious blunder in respect of one of the "associations" of lavender. It is affirmed by the writer that the plant grows in Syria, and furnished the "ointment of spikenard" with which Mary anointed our Lord in Bethany. Let us suppose the two statements to be correct, and then what becomes of the protest against a supposed act of extravagance-"it might have been sold for three hundred pence"? The produce of a common weed of the country could never have acquired such a value, and the protest necessarily suggests that the ointment of spikenard was the produce of some far-distant land, and obtainable only with cost and difficulty. Such, indeed, is the case. The spikenard of the New Testament and of Canticles i. 12 and iv. 13 was imported into Palestine from the far East, the plant producing it being the Nardostachys Jatamansi of De Candolle, a plant spoken of by Dioscorides as the Nard of the Ganges-the Sumbul or Sunbul hindac of the Arabs to this day. Lavender, indeed, grows in Syria, for the genus Lavandula is essentially Mediterranean, but it was not the spikenard of antiquity. The commonest uses of Lavandula connect it with the lavatory, both words deriving their origin from lavo, to wash; the plant being as much prized in ancient times as now for its refreshing perfume and cleansing properties. Herein is the secret of the commercial importance of lavender, of which immense quantities are grown near London for the purposes of the perfumer. The common lavender (Lavandula vera) is the species grown in the Mitcham and other districts, as the oil yielded by its flowers, although not so large in bulk as that produced by the flowers of Lavandula spica, is of much finer quality, and is alone employed in the manufacture of the finest perfumes. The oil obtained from the last mentioned of the two species is rather green in colour, and is commonly known as spike oil, or foreign oil of lavender. It is chiefly used for painting, but a considerable quantity finds its way every year to the second-class manufactories, where lavender-water and other perfumes, of which the base is the essential oil of lavender, are prepared, and this in its turn is sometimes adulterated with spirits of turpentine. The harvesting of the flowers takes place at the end of July or the beginning of August, according to the season, the proper moment for cutting the spikes being just as the flowers are opening, as they are then more powerfully aromatic, and consequently yield an oil of greater value than when fully expanded. The cutting is done with the sickle, and every care taken to immediately pack and tie up in mats, for when exposed to the rays of the sun for any length of time after cutting, the yield of oil is materially reduced in consequence. The flowers cannot, indeed, be sent to the distillery too quickly after their removal from the plants. Large quantities of lavender flowers are sent to Covent Garden annually, and from thence find their way to the shops and costers' barrows, for there is still a demand for them for filling muslin bags to stow away in drawers and cupboards, notwithstanding the facilities which exist for obtaining the essential oil, and lavender-water, and other perfumes into which it enters. The flowers, it should be remembered, are put into drawers and wardrobes to exclude moths, as well as for imparting an agreeable odour to the articles placed in these receptacles. A few drops of the oil will, however, serve the same purpose; and it has been ascertained by experiment that if a single drop is placed in a small box along with a living insect, the insect will be killed almost immediately. The distillation of the flowers is a business quite distinct from that of their production, and both large and small growers take their crops to the distillery, and pay a certain rate per ton. The quantity of oil extracted from a ton of lavender varies according to the season, a rather dry and hot summer being the most favourable to an abundant production. From 15 lbs. to 16lbs. is considered a fair average, and in some years it reaches 20 lbs., but not often. The distilling commences about the 1st of August, and is continued until the end of September or the middle of October, according to the extent of the crop. In the propagation of a stock of lavender, and in the management of the plantations after their formation, a very simple course of procedure has been found to be the most satisfactory. Propagation is effected by means of cuttings taken in the autumn, October being considered the most suitable month in which to take them. After the shoots selected for cuttings are separated from the old plants, they are left in small heaps on the ground for six weeks, and are then planted. Rooted slips are, as far as possible, taken advantage of for the increase of stock, and when these can be had they are at once planted in the field, at a distance of eighteen inches apart each way.