Smyrna times., 1878-08-21
Making Perfumes.

AhS SOo1h VI uldIly QISIflCIS
devoted to making perfumes from flowers.
Among the towns of this region are Cannes :
and Vence. During the months of Feb
ruary, March and April the violet is the >
flower in season, and the price is from 80
cents to 81 for two pounds weight of g
flowers. The kind used is known as the
Parmese violet, which is double and ex- 7
ceedly fragrant. May, June, and half of
July is the time for roses and the flower of s
the orange.tree. In Vence these blossoms {
are very cheap, the former costing u cents
per pound and the latter cents. From !
the end of July to the beginning of Octo- {
ber the jessamine and tuberose are in :
flower, and then there is lull for the 6
mountain regions, but not for Cannes, for
at that time begins the season of the
Towering cassie, a tree of which l must beg
TO confess my ignorance. 1t is not an
acacia, but the tree has enormous thorns,
and the blossom is a light yellow, and re-
sembles pea. But it is the special nature
of this tree that it will not flower upon
lime or chalky soil, only upon soil of de-
composed granite. Hence, though it bios
SONS at Cannes, it refuses to flower at
Antilles, half mile south, and is altogeth-
er plant of very restricted habitat 1t
blossoms until the beginning of December,
and fetches 80 cents to 60 cents per
pound according to the abundance or
scarcity OF the season. At the present
moment in Vence, roses are the order of
the day, and on the deliciously clean and
cool tile flooring of the factory the rose
blossoms were piled up thickly in huge,
| glowing heaps. In back room was long
table, covered with a snow-white table
cloth, and around this were seated some 80
women and young girls, waiting i'm
| patiently to be served with roses, which |
| fhpV tn ClnOlr frbopo nrl,r
sample quantity, for the rains had in
terfered somewhat with the Vence crop, |
and these came from the neighboring vii |
| lage OF La Tourette, from q new man. |
Three very pretty girls, who were perma |
nently employed in the factory, at signal |
from the proprietor, took great wicker
baskets, and, heaping them with roses,
emptied them upon the tablecloth in front |
OF the pluckers. 1t was very charming
picture-the village girls and old women
and little tots not years old, in pictur-
esque costume and very wonderful straw
hats, all seated around the board heaped
up with the glowing blossoms, wonderfully
relieved by the white cloth. The good
looking girls did not wear any hats-trust
them for that-and Immediately, from
natural thirst for decoration, chose the
lovellest roses and stuck them behind their
ears. Then plucking began in earnest. Selling
the unhappy flowers firmly in the left hand
and grasping the stalk close to the ovary,
2 they, with an angry twist, separated the
blushing corollas and threw them into a
e big basket ensconced between their knees.
l A cent a pound is the tariff, and when
there is no stint of flowers, the girls can
a always earn half franc, or 10 cents.
When the roses were weighed, and a tall
J. Vencian, standing beside the proprietor
with his hand full of coppers, had paid
everybody his sous, the flowers were re-
! packed in baskets by the three hand
maidens of the establishment and taken
0 below. Here were vats half filled with
0 warm oil in some instances, and in others
with warm grease, made by mixing lard
J, and beef suet, most carefully prepared and
g cleaned in the Winter months. 70 every
q three c'cUecs, or watts, was man armed with
r a wooden paddle, and as the girls poured
g the rose-blossoms into the oil and grease
L they stirrid about until the whole was one
% hideous wretched paste ofa dirty brown color
!, The men who manipulated the grease had a
70 warm time of it,for it offered considerable re.
l. sistance to the paddle, and the perspira-
ton fairly poured down their brows as they
8 worked their spatules. Twentyfour hours
le the leaves remain soaking, and then they
y are packed into coarse linen bags and put
ie under a powerful press, which soueezes
the perfumed oil into a stone gutter, from
e which 1t pours by pipe into straining- bag
q, and thence into vat TO warm the oil
re and grease, precautions have to be taken
m They are not placed in communication
cd with the fire, but are lodged in huge COP
per boilers half filled with water, fixed in q
OF range, which occupies one entire end o
sr; the apartment. When warmed to blood
ro heat the oil and grease are poured into
their respective cuOees, and the operation
lis with the paddle is repeated with fresh roses
sy twenty-five times are roses poured into tn,
on Vats before the oleaginous matters are suffi
~ GENTLY saturated to be sent to the grea
el perfumers and chemists as anatiereS premiereS
oy For orange flowers from 10 to 25 infusion
Ke are necessary, according to the quality de
OF: manded. The violet demands at least sc
Oh but for the matieres prematieres of the jessa
mine and the tuberose there is an immens
lat diversity of range. The best qualities
however, demand 60 infusions, but when
ye' perfumer wants the best that can possibl
he be made, there is no limit and the opera
ton of infusion is repeated as long as bios
ng SONS can be procured. 1 asked the pre-
IN prietor if the oil would still absorb the pei
ad fume, and he said yes, for jessamine and tube
run rose. The strong odors of the orange-howe
at- and the rose render fewer infusions neces
ay' sary, and, indeed, for some low grades O
ose odors there are not so many Infusion
even as 10. Then, again, the warming {
ere the oil draws out the perfume much faste
ch- but the delicate character of the jessamin
'eeir, and the tuberose is opposed to such
liie course, and for them there is a differer
the procedure. Numerous shallow trays al
ed, used, which are provided with a viii
'th' grating, over which a coarse cotton cloth
ave stretched, which has been previously stee
ed in cold oil. The flowers are then de-
ody cately placed upon the cloth and renewe
ros' day by day and sometimes, if the blossom
IN come in fast enough, twice day. / a
:, glad to think that the beautiful star-lil
the blossoms of the jessamine are not plunge
oru into the dark.hued, greasy mass, that lool
the like boiling sugar, for it was detructve
ING all romance to see the fate of the rose
But the manner in which the jassamine
cultivated is not what one would CT
NeV' picturesque. Instead of trailing over son
tne q protecting tree, as in India, or upon
iu' summer house or long wall, as with us,
nan is cut down like a vine, and is restricted
II l number of shoots which send out spra
ond thickly covered with flowers This mt
INIT. derous process makes the plant so We
q sensitive, that it has to be covered wi
er, earth from October to the end of March.
rave -
eed, That mans religion is worth little
'lect nothing which has no dwelling place but
title his brain
uld. --..s---