FLORES LAVANDULÆ.
Lavender Flowers; F. Fleurs de Lavande; G. Lavendelblumen.
Botanical Origin—Lavandula vera DC., a shrubby plant growing in the wild state from 1 to 2 feet high, but attaining 3 feet or more under cultivation. It is indigenous to the mountainous regions of the countries bordering the western half of the Mediterranean basin. Thus it occurs in Eastern Spain, Southern France (extending northward to Lyons and Dauphiny), in Upper Italy, Corsica, Calabria and Northern Africa,—on the outside of the olive region.[1738] In cultivation it grows very well in the open air throughout the greater part of Germany and as far north as Norway and Livonia; the northern plant would even appear to be more fragrant, according to Schübeler.[1739]
History—There has been much learned investigation in order to identify lavender in the writings of the classical authors, but the result has not been satisfactory, and no allusion has been found which unquestionably refers either to L. vera or to L. Spica,[1740] whereas L. Stœchas was perfectly familiar to the ancients.
The earliest mention of lavender that we have observed, occurs in the writings of the abbess Hildegard,[1741] who lived near Bingen on the Rhine during the 12th century, and who in a chapter De Lavendula alludes to the strong odour and many virtues of the plant. In a poem of the school of Salerno entitled Flos Medicinæ[1742] occur the following lines:—
“Salvia, castoreum, lavendula, primula veris,
Nasturtium, athanas hæc sanant paralytica membra.”
In 1387 cushions of satin were made for King Charles VI. of France, to be stuffed with “lavende.”[1743] Its use was also popular at an early period in the British isles, for we find “Llafant” or “Llafanllys” mentioned among the remedies of the “Physicians of Myddvai.”[1744] And in Walton’s “Description of an inn,” about the year 1680 to 1690, we find the walls stuck round with ballads, where the sheets smelt of lavender....[1745]
Lavender was well known to the botanist of the 16th century.
Description—The flowers of Common Lavender are produced in a lax terminal spike, supported on a long naked stalk. They are arranged in 6 to 10 whorls (verticillasters), the lowest being generally far remote from those above it. A whorl consists of two cymes, each having, when fully developed, about three flowers, below which is a rhomboidal acuminate bract, as well as several narrow smaller bracts belonging to the particular flowers. The calyx is tubular, contracted towards the mouth, marked with 13 nerves and 5-toothed, the posterior tooth much larger than the others. The corolla of a violet colour is tubular, two-lipped, the upper lip with two, the lower with three lobes. Both corolla and calyx, as well as the leaves and stalks, are clothed with a dense tomentum of stellate hairs, amongst which minute shining oil-glands can be seen by the aid of a lens.