ROMERO. WOOLLY BLUE-CURLS.
Trichostema lanatum, Benth. Mint Family.
Shrubby; two to five feet high. Leaves.—Opposite and fascicled in the axils; an inch or so long; green above; white-woolly beneath. Flowers.—Blue; in terminal clusters sometimes a foot long; covered with dense violet wool. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Corolla.—Nearly an inch long; with tube half its length and border violet-shaped. Stamens and Style.—Two inches long. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Hab.—From San Diego to Santa Barbara.
When the first scorching winds of the desert have withered and laid low the lovely flowers of the southern plains, the Romero is just coming into bloom upon dry hillsides. Its shrubby form, with densely crowded leaves, becomes conspicuous by reason of its long spikes of purple-woolly buds and blossoms. This inflorescence is an exquisite thing, more like the production of a Paris milliner than a guileless creation of nature. The individual blossoms have much the look of alert little blue violets wearing long, elegant lilac aigrets. Both leaf and flower have a pleasant aromatic fragrance, entirely unlike the dreadful odor of the common blue-curls.
Among the Spanish-Californians it is known altogether by the musical name of "Romero," and is one of their most highly valued medicinal herbs, being considered a panacea for many troubles. Fried in olive oil, it becomes an ointment which alleviates pain and cures ulcers; dried and reduced to powder, it is a snuff very efficacious for catarrh; and made into a tincture, it is used as a liniment. This plant is also sometimes called "black sage."
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