There are few scents in this world that evoke the feeling of clean – lavender is one of them. Its common and scientific name originates from lavare, the Latin word for wash or bathe. Lavender was popular as a linen-washing herb in Europe, no doubt due to its pleasant aroma, but it also possesses antiseptic qualities and can help to keep insects at bay. Discouraging or killing insects was paramount before the invention of glass windows and screens, a time when humans often shared the same roof with flea and lice-ridden livestock. Maude Grieve writes in A Modern Herbal (no longer especially modern, as it was written in 1931):

Dried Lavender flowers are still greatly used to perfume linen, their powerful, aromatic odour acting also as a preventative to the attacks of moths and other insects. In America, they find very considerable employment for disinfecting hot rooms and keeping away…