s "Romero Santo" (sacred rosemary). Its
essential oil (also that of _L. dentata_) is there obtained for
household use by suspending the fresh flowering stalks, flowers
downward, in closed bottles and exposing them for some time in the sun's
rays; a mixture of water and essential oil collects at the bottom, which
is used as a haemostatic and for cleansing wounds.

The specific gravity of Spanish oil of _L. staechas_ is 0.942 at 15 deg. C.
It boils between 180 deg. and 245 deg.. The odor of this oil is not at all
suggestive of that of lavender, but resembles more that of oil of
rosemary, possessing also the camphoraceous odor of that oil. In India
this oil is much prized as an expectorant and antispasmodic.

[Illustration: LAVANDULA VERA. LAVANDULA SPICA.

(From photographs of the plants. Natural size.)]

The other species which are distinctly characterized are _L.
pedunculata, L. viridis, L. dentata, L. heterophylla, L. pyrenaica, L.
pinnata, L. coronopifolia, L. abrotonoides, L. Lawii_, and _L.
multifida_.

The _L. multifida_ is synonymous with _L. Burmanii_. In Spain the
therapeutic properties of _L. dentata_ are alleged to be even more
marked than in the oils of any of the other species of lavender. It is
said to promote the healing of sluggish wounds, and when used in the
form of inhalation to have given good results in cases of severe
catarrh, and even in cases of diphtheria. In odor this oil strongly
suggests rosemary and camphor. Its specific gravity is 0.926 at 15 deg. C.
It distills almost completely between 170 deg. and 200 deg..

The specific gravity of the oil of _L. vera_ (according to Flueckiger and
Hanbury, _Pharmacographia_) ranges between 0.87 and 0.94. The same
authorities state that in a tube of 50 millimeters the plane of
polarization is diverted 4.2 deg. to the left.

Dr. Gladstone found (_Jnl. Ch. Soc._, xviii., 3) that a sample of pure
oil of _L. vera_, obtained from Dr. S. Piesse, indicated a specific
gravity of 0.8903 at 15 deg. C., and that its power of rotating the plane of
polarization (observed with a tube ten inches long) was -20 deg.. Compared
with these results he found the sp. gr. of oil of turpentine to be
0.8727, and the rotatory power -79 deg..

Although _L. staechas_ was well known to the ancients, no allusion
unquestionably referring to _L. vera_ has been found in the writings of
classical authors, the earliest mention of this latter plant being in
the twelfth century, by th