Lavandula is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found from Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia to southeast India. Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, for use as culinary herbs, commercially for the extraction of essential oils; the most cultivated species, Lavandula angustifolia, is referred to as lavender, there is a color named for the shade of the flowers of this species. Despite its use over centuries in traditional medicine and cosmetics, there is no high-quality clinical evidence that lavender has any effects on diseases or improves health; the genus includes annual or short-lived herbaceous perennial plants, shrub-like perennials, subshrubs or small shrubs. Leaf shape is diverse across the genus, they are simple in some cultivated species.

In most species the leaves are covered in fine hairs or indumentum, which contain the essential oils. Flowers are borne in whorls, held on spikes rising above the foliage, the spikes being branched in some species; some species produce coloured bracts at the apices. The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species blackish purple or yellowish; the calyx is tubular. The corolla is tubular with five lobes. Lavandula stoechas, L. pedunculata and L. dentata were known in Roman times. From the Middle Ages onwards, the European species were considered two separate groups or genera and Lavandula, until Linnaeus combined them, he only recognised five species in Species Plantarum, L. multifida and L. dentata and L. stoechas and L. spica from Southern Europe. L. pedunculata was included within L. stoechas. By 1790, L. pinnata and L. carnosa were recognised. The latter was subsequently transferred to Anisochilus. By 1826 Frédéric Charles Jean Gingins de la Sarraz listed 12 species in three sections, by 1848 eighteen species were known.

One of the first modern major classifications was that of Dorothy Chaytor in 1937 at Kew. The six sections she proposed for 28 species still left many intermediates that could not be assigned, her sections included Stoechas, Subnudae, Pterostoechas and Dentatae. However all the major cultivated and commercial forms resided in the Stoechas and Spica sections. There were four species within Stoechas, she believed that the garden varieties were hybrids between true lavender L. angustifolia and spike lavender. Lavandula has three subgenera: Subgenus Lavandula is of woody shrubs with entire leaves, it contains the principal species grown for oils. They are found across the Mediterranean region to western Arabia. Subgenus Fabricia consists of shrubs and herbs, it has a wide distribution from the Atlantic to India, it contains some ornamental plants. Subgenus Sabaudia constitutes two species in the southwest Arabian peninsula and Eritrea, which are rather distinct from the other species, are sometimes placed in their own genus Sabaudia.

In addition, there are numerous cultivars in commercial and horticultural usage. The first major clade corresponds to subgenus Lavendula, the second Fabricia; the Sabaudia group is less defined. Within the lavendula clade, the subclades correspond to the existing sections, but place Dentatae separately from Stoechas, not within it. Within the Fabricia clade, the subclades correspond to Pterostoechas and Chaetostachys, thus the current classification includes 39 species distributed across 8 sections, in three subgenera. However, since lavender cross-pollinates there are countless variations that present difficulties in classification; the English word lavender is thought to be derived from Old French lavandre from the Latin lavare, referring to the use of infusions of the plants. The botanic name Lavandula as used by Linnaeus is considered to be derived from this and other European vernacular names for the plants; however it is suggested that this explanation may be apocryphal, that the name may be derived from Latin livere, "blueish".

The names used for some of the species, "English lavender", "French lavender" and "Spanish lavender" are all imprecisely applied. "English lavender" is used for L. angustifolia, though some references say the proper term is "Old English Lavender". The name "French lavender" may be used to refer to L. dentata. "Spanish lavender" may be used to refer to L. lanata or L. dentata. The most common form in cultivation is the common or English lavender Lavandula angustifolia. A wide range of cultivars can be found. Other grown ornamental species are L. stoechas, L. dentata, L. multifida. Because the cultivated forms are planted in gardens worldwide, they are found growing wild as garden escapes, well beyond their natural range; such spontaneous growth is harmless, but in some cases Lavandula species have become invasive. For example, in Australia, Lavandula stoechas has become a cause for concern.

Corinne Luchaire was a French film actress, a star of French cinema on the eve of World War II. Her association with the German occupation led her to be sentenced to "national indignity" after the war, after writing an autobiography, she died from tuberculosis aged only 28. Luchaire left school to join the drama class of Raymond Rouleau and made her acting debut under the name Rose Davel at the age of 16 in a play written by her grandfather, Altitude 3 200; the following year she starred in Prison sans barreaux, which in 1938 was remade in English in London as Prison Without Bars, with her again in the lead role. She spoke English fluently. Mary Pickford called her "the new Garbo." She starred in 1939 in Le Dernier Tournant, the first version of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Born Rosita Christiane Yvette Luchaire in Paris, she was the daughter of journalist and politician Jean Luchaire, who supported the 1940 French Government's Révolution nationale, her paternal grandfather Julien Luchaire was a playwright and her maternal grandfather Armand Besnard was a painter.

Her sister Florence was an actress. Her mother a painter, became Gustav Stresemann's mistress, they moved to Germany with Corinne. Corinne charmed Stresemann's friend Kurt Freiherr von Schröder, who let her live in his mansion. Corinne grew up around the Nazis. There, she met the future German ambassador to Paris, Otto Abetz, who married her father's secretary, who until 1939 had been his mistress, she accompanied her father to Vichy Paris in August 1940. Corinne was married to a French aristocrat, Guy de Voisins-Lavernière, she became a well-known, piquant French actress, she benefited during the Occupation from the political and social position of her father, the editor of Les Temps Nouveaux, Toute la vie. She was ill, stopped acting in 1940. Notwithstanding this, it was said that for her Paris under the German occupation had been just one continuous round of champagne parties, receptions at the German Embassy, German dinner parties chez Maxim's. After D-Day in June 1944 Corinne, along with other collaborationists, started the very hazardous train journey to Germany.

This slow journey was halted by wrecked lines and she transferred to cars provided to take them to the Sigmaringen enclave. It is said, she and her father, latterly Minister of Information in the French Government escaped to Merano in Italy, but they were arrested in May 1945 and imprisoned at Fresnes. She spent several months in jail in Nice, was sentenced to ten years of dégradation nationale by a tribunal in June 1946, her father, condemned to death for treason, was executed in February 1946. In 1949, Luchaire published her autobiography, entitled Ma drôle de vie, about her stardom and the German occupation; the book was criticised as naive and failing to analyse her role in the Nazi occupation. She never ceased to defend her father, who to her was a martyr "who had never wanted to harm anyone, sincere, who had never thought unkindly of any man."She died on 22 January 1950 at the Clinique Médicale Edouard Rist in Paris. She is buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux dans les Hauts-de-Seine. Les Beaux jours by Marc Allégret Le Chanteur de minuit Prison sans barreaux by Léonide Moguy Conflict by Léonide Moguy Prison Without Bars Le Dernier Tournant by Pierre Chenal aka The Last Turning Le Déserteur Abandonment by Mario Mattoli Cavalcade d'amour aka Love Cavalcade Luchaire, Corinne.

Ma drôle de vie. Deterna. ISBN 978-2-913044-28-9. Beylie, Claude. Les Oubliés Du Cinéma Français. Cerf. ISBN 2-204-06189-1. Corinne Luchaire on IMDb Carole Wrona. Corinne L. une éclaboussure de l’histoire. France 3

Samizu Matsuki was a Japanese artist and educator. She won the Gold Medal at the 1970 First New York International Art Show, the Grand Prix at the 1971 Locust Valley Art Show on Long Island, New York, the Award of Excellence at the Abraham & Straus-Hempstead Art Show, "Long Island Art'74" for her explorations of Classical Realism. Matsuki was first woman member of the Salmagundi Club. Matsuki was born March 1936 in Uryū, Hokkaidō, Japan, to educators Satoru and Masue Matsuki, her father Satoru's opposition to the Japanese War led to official reprisals forcing him and his family into hiding for most of World War 2. After the surrender of Japan, his known anti-war sentiments resulted in his being given an education leadership post, where he applied the innovations of American educator Ruth Benedict and philosopher John Dewey to the Japanese educational system, earning him an award from Emperor Hirohito in 1970; the family lived in a number of locations on Hokkaidō the resort city Noboribetsu, famed for its scenery and hot springs.

Matsuki's lineal ancestors had moved to southern Hokkaidō in the late 19th century. Matsuki was awarded a scholarship to the Women's College of Fine Art's Faculty of Western Painting, Tokyo, she graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her graduation work “Daphne”, is in the collection of the Noboribetsu Cultural Center, Hokkaidō, Japan; the painting suffered some notoriety for its sensuality. Her two teaching jobs, one at an elementary school in Itabashi Precinct in 1959, the other at Shimura Daisan Junior High School in Tokyo in 1960, illuminated for her the malleability of children per the call of art critic and historian Herbert Read for originality and creativity, she was an active member of the Tokyo Teachers Union. In 1960 the Teachers Union Monthly published a presentation and lecture Matsuki gave in the Bunkyo Precinct in Tokyo, speaking on behalf of the teachers of the more working class Itabashi precinct, she called for adoption throughout the Japanese educational system of the education principles laid out by Read in his book Education Through Art.

In 1961 Matsuki married American airman Herman Berry at the American Embassy in Tokyo. They left Japan in 1962 and for the next seven years lived at airbases in Europe and the United States; when her husband was sent to Pakistan, Matsuki spent eighteen months with Berry's relatives, where she painted portraits of residents of their remote Appalachian mountain community in western North Carolina. Upon his return, they spent four years at the Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. During this period, Matsuki visited Rome and painted commissioned portraits for five Air Force officers and their wives, was commissioned by the Officers Club of the 49th Tactical Squadron to paint a portrait of the deceased USAF fighter ace Richard Bong. Matsuki became disillusioned with her marriage. In 1969 she divorced Berry. Uterine cancer shortly caused her to get a hysterectomy at age 32, she spent that summer in Albany, where she submitted the winning design for the logo of the 1969 Albany Jaycees Timber Carnival. This being the carnival's 25th anniversary, the theme was "passing the torch."

Matsuki's drawing, shown here on the carnival's pinback button, depicts a young logger with hardhat and chainsaw and an elderly logger with wool cap and axe, standing behind a short bark-covered log. The young logger has an arm around the shoulder of his elder in a comradely fashion. Informed that six years would pass before she could be declared free of cancer, in 1970 she plunged into the New York fine arts cultural scene. By 1975 her explorations of Classical Realism had won her a gold medal at the 1970 First New York International Art Show, membership as one of the first woman artists in the hitherto men-only New York art club, the Salmagundi Club, the Grand Prix at the 1971 Locust Valley Art Show on Long Island, New York, the Award of Excellence at the 1974 Abraham & Straus-Hempstead Art Show, "Long Island Art'74". Becoming less concerned about a resurgence of cancer, who'd become known as "the shark" by friends for her never slowing down worked at a more leisurely pace and stopped entering competitions.

She returned to Oregon in 1980, where she taught at the Albany Art Center, worked on a baccalaureate at Oregon State University in nearby Corvallis, employed by the university as a janitor, created additional drawn works. During a brief sojourn in California, Matsuki painted a mural at a health spa in Isla Vista. In 1985, Matsuki met Earth First! Activist Ron Huber in Corvallis, Oregon. Several months she drew the cover art for the August 1985 edition of the Earth First! Journal; the drawing featured Huber treesitting in an old growth Douglas fir, confronted by two Linn County sheriff's deputies elevated to him by a crane. Matsuki married Huber in 1987, they moved to Cheverly, Maryland in 1988 to Rockland, Maine in 1992. Neurological problems that flared up in 1991 while living in a farmhouse in Calvert County, Maryland led to a reduction in Matsuki's painting and drawing efforts for more than a decade. In 2006 Matsuki underwent a neurological rehabilitation regimen. In 2010 she was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, stemming from as far back as 1991.

On August 4, 2018, Matsuki died of cancer at her Rockland home. Two of her works,Ah... and A Celebrator are owned by collector Cristina Chan Johnston of Huntingtown, Maryland. One of the first women admitted to membership in the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York City s