Uses—Lavender flowers are not prescribed in modern English medicine. The volatile oil has the stimulant properties common to bodies of the same class and is much used as a perfume.
Other Species of Lavender.
1. Lavandula Spica DC. is a plant having a very close resemblance to L. vera, of which Linnæus considered it a variety, though its distinctness is now admitted. It occurs over much of the area of L. vera, but does not extend so far north, nor is it found in such elevated situations, or beyond the limit of the olive. It is in fact a more southern plant and more susceptible to cold, so that it cannot be cultivated in the open soil in Britain except in sheltered positions. In Languedoc and Provence, it is the common species from the sea-level up to about 2000 feet, where it is met by the more hardy L. vera.[1752]
Lavandula Spica is distilled in the south of France, the flowering wild plant in its entire state being used. The essential oil, which is termed in French Essence d’Aspic, is known to English druggists as Oleum Lavandulæ spicæ, Oleum Spicæ, or Oil of Spike. It resembles true oil of lavender, but compared with that distilled in England it has a much less delicate fragrance. This however may depend upon the frequent adulteration, for we find that flowers of the two plants (L. vera and L. Spica) grown side by side in an English garden, are hardly distinguishable in fragrance. Porta already even, in speaking of the oil of lavender flowers, stated:[1753] “e spica fragrantior excipitur, ut illud quod ex Gallia provenit....”—Lallemand (1859) isolated from oil of spike a camphor which he believes to be identical with common camphor.
Oil of Spike is used in porcelain painting and in veterinary medicine.
2. Lavandula Stœchas L.—This plant was well known to the ancients; Dioscorides remarks that it gives a name to the Stœchades, the modern isles of Hières near Toulon, where the plant still abounds. It has a wider range than the two species of Lavandula already described, for it is found in the Canaries and in Portugal, and eastward throughout the Mediterranean region to Constantinople and Asia Minor. It may at once be known from the other lavenders by its flower-spike being on a short stalk, and terminating in 2 or 3 conspicuous purple bracts.
The flowers, called Flores Stœchados or Stœchas arabica,[1754] were formerly kept in the shops, and had a place in the London Pharmacopœia down to 1746. We are not aware that they are, or ever were distilled for essential oil, though they are stated to be the source of True Oil of Spike.[1755]
HERBA MENTHÆ VIRIDIS.
Spearmint.
Botanical Origin—Mentha viridis L. is a fragrant perennial plant, chiefly known in Europe, Asia and North America, as the Common Mint of gardens, and only found apparently wild in countries where it has long been cultivated. It occurs occasionally in Britain under such circumstances.[1756]