Jasmine

Jasmine, or Jessamine, the popular name of various shrubs belonging to the genus Jasminum, which gives its name to the gamopetalous order Jasminaoeae. Of some sixty species, more than forty are cultivated in our gardens, most of them being natives of the warmer regions of the Old World. They have opposite pinnately compound leaves of one, three, five, or seven leaflets, and cymes of fragrant white or yellow flowers. The calyx is tubular, with narrow limb-segments, and the corolla has a long tube and spreading segments, generally five in number. There are two included stamens and a two-chambered ovary. J. officinale is the common white jasmine; J. sambac, the white Arabian jasmine; J. grandiftoruni, the Spanish or Catalonian jasmine, a native of Tobago; J. frntiea.ni, the common yellow jasmine; and J. nudiflorum, the species which flowers before the appearance of its leaves. J. grandiftoruni is largely cultivated for its perfume at Cannes and Grasse. In China 10 lb. of the flowers of J. paniculatum mixed with 30 lb. of those of J. sambac are added as a perfume to 100 lb. of tea.