The Family Kitchen Gardener (1856)/Lavender

by Robert Buist

Layout 2

LAVENDER.

Lavándula Spìca.—Lavande, Fr.—Spiklavendel, Ger.

Is a very hardy plant, and a native of the south of Europe. It may be readily increased by planting slips or cuttings of the young shoots in the Spring. The common Lavender has been cultivated for ages past. The fragrant smell of the flower is well known, and to most persons is very agreeable; to the taste it is bitterish, warm, and somewhat pungent; the leaves are weaker, and less grateful. The flowers are often employed as a perfume, and medicinally as mild stimulants and corroborants, in several complaints, both internally and externally. They are also sometimes used in the form of a conserve.