True lavender (Lavandula angustifolia, also Lavandula officinalis or Lavandula vera) is a plant species in the mint family, originally native to the coastal regions of the Mediterranean — from Dalmatia and Greece to Tuscany. Its name derives from the Latin "lavare" (to wash), as the aromatic herb was often added to wash water and baths. Benedictine monks introduced the plant north of the Alps; being winter-hardy, it has since naturalized in places such as Jena, Rudolstadt, and Bad Blankenburg in Germany. Its use on the British Isles reaches far back, appearing among the remedies of the Welsh "Physicians of Myddvai" as early as the 13th century — though as a rule, the colder the region, the less fragrant the lavender.

In ancient Rome, lavender was so coveted that a pound of its blossoms cost as much as a farm labourer's monthly wage. True lavender has long been credited with a broad therapeutic range. Gerhard Madaus wrote in his 1938 "Textbook of Biological Remedies": "Lavandula is a mild nervine, particularly favoured for migraine. It is prescribed for neurasthenia, vertigo, nervous palpitations, general nervous agitation, hysteria, cramps, fainting, and insomnia." The herbalist Matthiolus praised lavender in verse as a "precious herb against all cold afflictions of the brain and sinews" — against dizziness, stroke, epilepsy, lethargy, cramp, tremor, and paralysis.

Burned as incense, lavender releases a fresh, floral-herbaceous scent with a subtle, soothing sweetness. It has long been associated with calm, purity, and inner peace, and ranks among the mildest and most approachable of all incense plants.

Labdanum is a resin obtained across the Mediterranean from various species of rockrose (Cistus), an independent plant family unrelated to true roses. In summer, an oily resin exudes from the leaves and twigs under the heat of the sun, as though the plant were sweating. Today, most labdanum comes from the gum rockrose (Cistus ladanifer), which produces significantly more resin than other species. In antiquity, the resin of the Cretan rockrose (Cistus creticus) was chiefly used; the Greek scholar Dioscorides described how shepherds drove their goats through dense rockrose thickets, later combing the sticky resin lumps out of the animals' fur and beards — a harvesting method still practiced in Crete into modern times, using leather straps in place of ropes.

The name labdanum derives from the Syro-Phoenician word "ladan," meaning "sticky herb." Already in ancient Egypt its sweet, animalic scent was highly prized, forming part of the famous incense blend "Kyphi." For centuries it also served as a remedy and was considered one of antiquity's most coveted aphrodisiacs.

Burned as incense, labdanum releases a warm, sweet, leathery, animalic scent with a subtle, honey-like depth. In perfumery it remains widely used as a substitute for ambergris, though burned as incense it develops an entirely distinctive character of its own.