Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/589

 JASMINE 569 troubadours, born in Agen, March 6, 1798, died there, Oct. 4, 1864. He was the child of a hunch- backed tailor and a lame mother, from whom he inherited little besides poverty, and the pre- diction, founded on the experience of many generations, that the Jasmins must inevitably die in the almshouse. His childhood, the events of which are described in his piece entitled Mous ioubenis (" My Souvenirs "), was one of privation and hunger ; but these he might have endured with cheerfulness, of which he pos- sessed an unfailing supply, had he not been tormented with an eager thirst for education. At about the age of 12 he gained admittance to a priests' seminary, where for 2J years he made rapid progress, until an act of youthful indiscretion caused his dismissal in disgrace. A few months later he was apprenticed to a barber and hair dresser in Agen. At 18 he was married and set up in business for himself. His leisure hours continued to be devoted to the acquisition of knowledge ; and from read- ing plays and romances he took to verse wri- ting, which so alarmed his wife that she per- sistently removed his pens and paper, and otherwise hindered him. Jasmin obeyed the hint so far as to stick to his calling, which he steadily practised ; but no discouragement could induce him to give up his passion for reading and writing verses ; and gradually his rural songs, written in an idiom of the langue d'oe, the former tongue of the southern trouba- dours, which is still spoken by the peasantry of southern France, found warm admirers among his friends and neighbors. In 1825 he ventured upon the publication of a burlesque poem, Lou chalibari (" The Charivari "). During the next ten years he produced his "Ode to Charity" (1830), "The Third of May" (1830), Soubenis (1832), and " Stanzas to the Scattered Remains of the Polish Nation " (1833). These were col- lected in 1835 and published in 2 vols. under the title of Las papillotos de Jasmin (" The Curl Papers of Jasmin"). His next piece, L'Abu- glo de Castel-Cuille ("The Blind Girl of Cas- tel Cuill6 "), founded on a pathetic legend of Guienne, is perhaps the most popular of all he wrote. During his only visit to Paris he recited it 26 times in 15 days, on the last occasion in presence of Louis Philippe and the royal family at Neuilly. The poem is familiar to English readers through the translation by Longfellow. Franfonette, produced in 1840, is his longest and mot ambitious piece. Among his remain- ing works are a second series of the Papillotos (1843), Lous dm frays lessoiu (" The Two Twin Brothers," 1847), Maltro Vinnoucento ("Mad Martha "), and many minor pieces. JASMIN K, or Jessamine. I. The name of shrubs, sometimes twining, of the genus jasminum, which with three other genera some botanists place in the order jasniinacece, while others re- gard it as belonging to the olive family. The species are all natives of warm countries ; they have compound leaves, which are sometimes re- duced to a single leaflet and appear simple ; the axillary or terminal, yellow or white flowers have a tubular corolla with a spreading limb, two stamens, and a two-lobed ovary ; the fruit is berry-like. The flowers of most species are deliciously fragrant, and the plants are favor- ites in the greenhouse, and where the climate hisniiiumi nllii'iiuilr. will allow are cultivated in the open air. The best known species is the common jasmine (J. officinale), which was introduced into England from the East in 1548, and is there cultivated for covering walls and arbors. It cannot be considered as properly hardy in the climate of New York, though in some sheltered situations it lasts for several years. It has become thor- oughly naturalized in the south of Europe, and is also cultivated there for the sake of its per- fume, which is obtained by stratifying the flowers with cotton impregnated with bene oil (sesamum), and allowing them to remain in a closed vessel for 24 hours; the flowers are then removed and replaced by fresh ones, and the process repeated until the oil is strongly im- pregnated with the odor ; the oil is removed from the cotton by pressure, and is used to perfume pomades ; when the oil is treated with alcohol that takes up the odor of the flowers, it forms the essence of jasmine. Perhaps the hardiest species is J. nudiflorum, which has yellow flowers, appearing very early in spring, but they are without odor ; J. odoratissimum has also yellow flowers, and is one of the most fragrant ; the same may be said of J. revolu- tum. One of the finest greenhouse species is J. grandiflorum, which is in Europe known as the Malabar, and by American florists as the Catalonian jasmine ; its long weak stems allow it to be trained upon frames or trellises, and it produces its exceedingly fragrant flowers, which are tinged with pink on the outside, in clusters of two or three. The sambac (J. sambac), an East Indian species, is a fine shrub for a warm greenhouse; it has leaves of a single leaflet, and large flowers in small clusters, which are