Lavender is an aromatic perennial evergreen shrub. Its woody stems bear lavender or purple flowers from late spring to early autumn although there are varieties with blossoms of white or pink. Lavender is native to the Mediterranean but now cultivated in cool-winter dry-summer areas in Europe and the Western United States. The use of Lavender goes back thousands of years with the first recorded uses by the Egyptians during the mummification process. Both the Greeks and the Romans had many uses for it the most popular being for bathing cooking as an ingredient in perfume healing wounds and as an insect repellant. Lavender was used as an after-bath perfume by the Romans who gave the herb its name from the Latin lavare to wash. During the Great Plague of 1665 grave robbers would wash their hands in a concoction called Four Thieves Vinegar which contained lavender wormwood rue sage mint and rosemary and vinegar; they rarely became infected