JASMINE or JESSAMINE, botanically Jasminum, a genus of shrubs or climbers of the family Oleaceae, and comprising about too species, of which 4o or more occur in the gardens of Great Britain and North America. The plants of the genus are mostly natives of the warmer regions of the Old World; there is one South American species. The leaves are pinnate or ternate, or sometimes apparently simple, consisting of one leaflet.
The common white jasmine, Jasminum officinale, one of the best known and most highly esteemed of hardy cultivated ligneous climbers, is a native of northern India and Persia. In the centre and south of Europe it is thoroughly acclimatized. Although it grows to the height of 12 and sometimes 20 ft., its stem is feeble and requires support. The fragrant white flowers bloom from June to October.
The zambak or Arabian jasmine, J. Sambac, is an evergreen white-flowered climber, 6 ft. high. The Spanish, or Catalonian jasmine, J. grandiflorum, a native of the north-west Himalaya, and cultivated both in the old and new world, is very like J. officinale, but differs in the size of the leaflets; the branches are shorter and stouter, and the flowers very much larger, and reddish underneath. By grafting it on two-year-old plants of J. officinale, an erect bush about 3 ft. high is obtained, requiring no supports.
The aroma is extracted by the process known as enfieurage, i.e., absorption by a fatty body, such as purified lard or olive oil. Square glass trays framed with wood about 3 in. deep are spread over with grease about I .lf an inch thick, in which ridges are made to facilitate absorption, and sprinkled with freshly gathered flowers, which are renewed every morning during the whole time the plant remains in blossom. Three pounds of fresh flowers will
perfume 1 lb. of grease—this is exhausted by maceration in 1 pt. of rectified spirit to form the extract.
The distinguishing characters of J. odoratissimum, a native of the Canary Islands and Madeira, consist principally in the alter nate, ternate and pinnate leaves, the 3-flowered terminal peduncles and the 5-cleft yellow corolla with obtuse segments. The flowers have the advantage of retaining when dry their natural perfume, which is suggestive of a mixture of jasmine, jonquil and orange blossom. In China J. paniculatum is cultivated as an erect shrub, known as sieu-hing-hwa; it is val ued for its flowers, which are used with those of J. Sambac, in the proportion of 10 lb. of the former to 3o lb. of the latter, for scenting tea-4o lb. of the mixture being required for ioo lb. of tea. J. angustifolium is a beautiful ever. green climber 1 o to 12 ft. high, found in the Coromandel forests, and introduced into cultivation.
Other hardy species commonly cultivated in gardens are the low or Italian yellow-flowered jasmine, J. humble, an East Indian species introduced and now found wild in the south of Europe, an erect shrub 3 or 4 ft. high, with angular branches, alternate and mostly ternate leaves, blossoming from June to Sept. ; the com mon yellow jasmine, J. fruticans, a native of southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, a hardy evergreen shrub, 1 o to 12 ft. high, with weak, slender stems requiring support, and bear ing yellow, odourless flowers from spring to autumn ; and J. nudiflorum (China), which bears its bright yellow flowers in winter or early spring before the leaves appear.