Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-16
Perfumes.

With O due amount of skill and
adroitness, always accompanied with
the requisite patience, every lady
can make her own perfumery, and
that, too, as of fine quality as ever
emanated from the extensive works
of Grasse, Cannes, Or Nico. OF all
perfumes, that of roses is most highly
priced by most of the nations of the
earth. While many other flowers
emit penetrating and lasting odors,
they very soon tire and cloy the OIL
factories to such degree as often to
produce aversion if not nausea. Not
so with the essential oil of the rose,
however; it is the gem Of all per-
fumes and the most widely celebrated
in soug and romance. Like iron
among the metals, while roses are
the most extensively used, they are
abundantly produced in all lands.
The oil of lavender and few other
kinds of flowers, is obtained by dis
tillation. But the process most ex-
tensively used by the noted perfum-
ers of the world, is what the French
call enfeurage. By this method,
the essential oil found secreted in
the cells of the dover petals, instead
of being driven out by heat, as in
distillation, is simply absorbed by a
contact of animal or vegetable fats,
as butter, grease, the fixed oils, etc.
In the south of France, hundreds of
women are employed in the pleasant
occupation of extracting the odorif-
erous principle from the many differ
emit kinds of flowers that are so
abundantly grown in that sunny
Hand. When the oil is to be obtain
ed from the leaves of fowerless
plants, or those in whose blossoms
the fragrance does not reside, distil-
lation is resorted to as the most
available means for accomplishing
the desired end. The e,Jleurage, or,
as the word implies, the absorption
method has the advantage of requir-
ing no heat, but that afforded by the
direct rays Of the sun. Distillation,
however, was undoubtedly the earl-
est known, since the boiling of mess
of pottage fully illustrates the chemi-
cal operations involved. 1t is q mis-
take to suppose that the perfume of
q blossom resides in its heart or
seed-vessel. As has been already
stated, the essential or volatile oil
from which proceeds the distinguish
ing odor of the plant, fills the minute
cells of the petals or flower leaves.
This oil can be made to exude from
the petals as the insensible perspira-
| ton exudes from the pores of the
skin in the animal economy. Before
being gathered, the blossoms of all
plants should be fully ripe, that is,
they should be fully expanded.
Among those flowers easily treated
and yielding rich perfumes, may be
noted, heliotrope, cassia, jassamine,
acacia, and all such flowers as COM
prise multiform systems of petals.
The " hundred-leaved" rose is proba-
bly, the best to use of all others
among its kind. The petals should
be stripped off from healthy flowers
and spread over the bottom of a
wide-mouthed earthern or glass jar,
which has first received thin coat
ing of butter or grease. Continue
the alternate layers of flower leaves
and butter till the jar is full, then
tie piece of rubber or bladder over
the top and let it stand exposed to
the rays of the sun, ten or fifteen
4 days. The whole mass is then thrown
Unto g vessel containing alcohol.
THE alcohol takes up the essential