Vuilly.  It has been gathered between Nice and Cosni, in the neighborhood of Limone, on the elevated slopes of the mountains of western Liguria, and in Etruria on hills near the sea.  The L. spica, which is the only species besides L. vera hardy in this country, was formerly considered only a variety of L. vera; it is distinguished by its lower habit, much whiter color, the leaves more congested at the base of the branches, the spikes denser and shorter, the floral leaves lanceolate or linear, and the presence of linear and subulate bractes.

It yields by distillation an oil termed “oil of spike,” or, to distinguish it from oil of L. staechas, “true oil of spike.”  It is darker in color than the oil of L. vera, and much less grateful in odor, reminding one of turpentine and rancid coker nut oil.  It is used by painters on porcelain, and in the manufacture of varnishes.  It is often largely admixed with essence of turpentine.

L.  Staechas (Stichas) was discovered prior to the year 50 A.D. in the Staechades Islands (now the Islands of Hyeres), hence the name.  At present it is found wild in the South of Europe and North of Africa, also at Teneriffe.  The leaves are oblong linear, about half an inch long (sometimes an inch long when cultivated), with revolute edges and clothed with hoary tomentum on both surfaces; the spike is tetragonal, compact, with a tuft of purple leaves at the top; the calyces are ovate and slightly shorter than the tube of the corolla.  The whole plant has a strong aromatic and agreeable flavor.  There is a variety of this species (L. macrostachya) native of Corsica, Sicily, and Naples, which has broader leaves and thicker octagonal spikes.

L. staechas is known in Spain as “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.