_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]
[1737] For pharmaceutical uses, the larger proportion of olein and
consequent lesser tendency to solidify, should be remembered.
[1738] On Mont Ventoux near Avignon, the region of _Lavandula vera_ is
comprised, according to Martins, between 1500 and 4500 feet above the
sea-level.—_Ann. des Sc. Nat._, Bot. x. (1838) 145. 149.
[1739] _Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_, Christiania (1873-1875) 26O.
[1740] F. de Gingins-Lassaraz, _Hist. des Lavandes_, Genève et Paris,
1826.
[1741] _Opera Omnia_, accurante J. P. Migne, Paris, 1855. 1143.
[1742] S. de Renzi, _Collectio Salernitana_, Napoli, i. 417-516.
[1743] Douët d’Arcq, _Comptes de l’Argenterie des rois de France_, ii.
(1874) 148.
[1744] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) 287.
[1745] Macaulay, _Hist. of England_, i. ch. 3, Inns.
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.
The flowers emit when rubbed a delightful fragrance, and have a
pleasant aromatic taste. The leaves of the plant are oblong linear, or
lanceolate, revolute at the margin and very hoary when young.
For pharmaceutical use or as a perfume, lavender flowers are stripped
from the stalks and dried by a gentle heat. They are but seldom kept in
the shops, being grown almost entirely for the sake of their essential
oil.
=Production of Essential Oil=—Lavender is cultivated in the parishes
of Mitcham, Carshalton and Beddington and a few adjoining localities,
all in Surrey, to the extent of about 300 acres. It is also grown at
Market Deeping in Lincolnshire; also at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where
lavender was apparently cultivated as early as the year 1568.[1746]
At the latter place there were in 1871 about 50 acres so cropped.
The plants which are of a small size, and grown in rows in dry open
fields, flower in July and August. The flowers are usually cut with the
stalks of full length, tied up in mats, and carried to the distillery
there to await distillation. This is performed in the same large stills
that are used for peppermint. The flowers are commonly distilled with
the stalks as gathered, and either fresh, or in a more or less dry
state. A few cultivators distill only the flowering heads, thereby
obtaining a superior product. Still more rarely, the flowers are
stripped from the stalks, and the latter rejected _in toto_.[1747]
According to the careful experiments of Bell,[1748] the oil made
in this last method is of exceedingly fine quality. The produce he
obtained in 1846 was 26½ ounces per 100 lb. of flowers, entirely
freed from stalks; in 1847, 25½ ounces; and in 1848, 20 ounces: the
quantities of flowers used in the respective years were 417, 633,
and 923 lb. Oil distilled from the stalks alone was found to have a
peculiar rank odour. In the distillation of lavender, it is said that
the oil which comes over in the earlier part of the operation is of
superior flavour.
[1746] Perhs, _Proc. American Pharm. Association_, 1876. 819.
[1747] For more particulars see the interesting account of Holmes,
_Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1877) 301. The author describes also the disease
which is affecting the lavender since about the year 1860.
[1748] _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1849) 276.
We have no accurate data as to the produce of oil obtained in the
ordinary way, but it is universally stated to vary extremely with the
season. Warren[1749] gives it as 10 to 12 lb., and in an exceptional
case as much as 24 lb. from the acre of ground under cultivation. At
Hitchin,[1750] the yield would appear to approximate to the last named
quantity. The experiments performed in Bell’s laboratory as detailed
above, show that the flowers deprived of stalks afforded on an average
exactly 1½ per cent. of essential oil.
Oil of _Lavandula vera_ is distilled in Piedmont, and in the
mountainous parts of the South of France, as in the villages about Mont
Ventoux near Avignon, and in those some leagues west of Montpellier
(St. Guilhen-le-désert, Montarnaud and St. Jean de Fos)—in all cases
from the wild plant. This foreign oil is offered in commerce of several
qualities, the highest of which commands scarcely one-sixth the price
of the oil produced at Mitcham.[1751] The cheaper sorts at least are
obtained by distilling the _entire plant_.
=Chemical Composition=—The only constituent of lavender flowers that
has attracted the attention of chemists is the essential oil (_Oleum
Lavandulæ_). It is a pale yellow, mobile liquid, varying in sp. gr.
from 0·87 to 0·94 (Zeller), having a very agreeable odour of the
flowers and a strong aromatic taste. The oil distilled at Mitcham
(1871) we find to rotate the plane of polarization 4·2° to the left, in
a column of 50 mm.
Oil of lavender seems to be a mixture in variable proportions of
oxygenated oils and stearoptene, the latter being identical, according
to Dumas, with common camphor. In some samples it is said to exist to
the extent of one-half, and to be sometimes deposited from the oil in
cold weather; we have not however been able to ascertain this fact.
The oil according to Lallemand (1859) appears also to contain compound
ethers.
=Commerce=—Dried lavender flowers are the object of some trade in the
south of Europe. According to the official _Tableau général du Commerce
de la France_, Lavender and Orange Flowers (which are not separated)
were exported in 1870 to the extent of 110,958 kilo. (244,741
lb.),—chiefly to the Barbary States, Turkey and America. There are no
data to show the amount of oil of lavender imported into England.
=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.
[1749] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1865) 257.
[1750] _Ibid._ i. (1860) 278. The statement is that an acre of land
yields “_about 6 Winchester quarts_” of oil.—One Winchester quart = 282
litres.
[1751] The Mitcham oil fetches 30_s._ to 60_s._ per lb., according to
the season.
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]