Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-14

plants in every way their invention could de-
wise for the sweet scents they gave. They
found that the odors Of plants resided in diff
ferent parts of them-sometimes in the roots,
sometimes in the stems, sometimes in the
flowers, sometimes in the seeds and sometimes
in the bark. Some plants yield several dis
t,nct oders; for instance, the orange tree gives
three-from the leaves one called petit grain
from the flowers neroli, and from the rind of
the fruit essential oil of orange sometimes
called essence of Portugal. In nearly all cases
the fragrance is due to a readily-evaporated
OH contained in small vessels or sacs."
SWEET SMELLS BY Wholesale.
1.-The business of making marketable per-
fumes from these oils must be an enormous
one, suggested the STAR writer
1ou can guess at the importance of it." re-
Piled the chemist. '.when tell you that Eu-
rope alone consumes 100, 600 gallons OF cologne
and other forms of perfumed spirits annually.
Enormous flower farms are cultivated in
France for the sole purpose of providing the
manufacturing perfumers with the blooms
they need. One farmer grows acres and acres
OF roses; another sweet violets, great fields of
them; another tuberoses, and so on. One per-
fumer of Grasse uses each year so, 900 pounds
of orange flowers, $4,000 pounds of rose leaves,
80, 900 pounds of yiolets, 1000 pounds of tube
roses and Of other flowers in proportion. The
manufacturer of perfumes employs several
methods for extracting them, depending upon
the sort of plant to be treated. For instance,
in the case of oranges it being desired to OBJ
tain the essence of Portugal the skins are put
into an iron press and sqeezed with enor-
nous force, SO that the little vessels contain
ing the essential oil are burst and il thus es-
capes through hole in the bottom Of the con-
trivance. By another process the flowers from
which perfume is to be extracted are
placed in purified mutton suet that is
kept melted by steam heat and
fresh supplies of the blossoms are added at
intervals, the old ones being removed each
time, this performance being continued from
in the blooms has an affinity for the grease
and passes into it. The grease, properly
strained, is put up as pomade. The process is
only used for making pomade. For colognes
the favorite process is called 'enfeurage.' and
is conducted in this way: Square frames three
inches deep, with glass bottoms, are spread
with layer of mutton suet half an inch thick,
and in this the flower buds are stuck, down.
ward, covering the surface completely. The
frames are piled in stacks and the flower 6
changed every few hours for as many weeks as
the blossoms are blooming Finally the grease
Is soaked in alcohol for a month, and having a
greater affinity for spirits than grease, it passes
out of the gre ase and into the alcohol which /,
when strained, is the cologne of commerce"
ALTAR OF ROSES AND RosEwATER.
Elbow is altar of roses made?"
SIT is procured by simply distilling roses
with water. The most extensive rose farms in
the world, cultivated for the altar, are in Tur-
key and in Ghazepore, India. The crop of rose
altar yielded by the Turkish farms in a year
frequently reaches $1,000 ounces, 1000 rose
blooms yielding one drachm of the altar. The
pure altar of roses is exceedingly offensive to
the smell; it Is only when it is very much di-
luted that its fragrance becomes SO incompar-
ably delicious. The same may be said OF violet
heliotrope and other concentrated essences. In
England roses are largely cultivated to make
rose water. In the season when they bloom
| they are gathered as soon as the dew is off and
sent to town in sacks to be picked. For this
purpose the leaves are separated from the stalks
and to every bushel of flowers a pound of COM
mon salt is thoroughly rubbed in. The salt
absorbs the water from the petals and becomes
brine, reducing the whole to a pasty mass
which, slowed away in casks, will keep indef-
nifty, for distilling into rose water at future
time But the rose water imported from
France, which is a residuary product of the dis.
tillatlon of roses for altar, is much better. The
greatest violet farms of the world are in the
neIghborhood of Nice, Grasse and Florence
sANDAL-wooD AND AMBERGRIs.
"Sandal-wood is one of the most ancient Of
vegetable perfumes, is it not?'
Eyes, though its correct name is santal-wood
1t used to grow very plentifully in China, but
the natives have burned it to such an extent
for centuries past for incense, in their worship
of Buddha. that it has been almost rendered
extinct in the celestial empire. Now it is ex
tensively cultivated for the Chinese market il
the Santal-wood Islands. The altar of santal
wood is procured by distillation. 100 pounds oil
| wood yielding 80 ounces of altar. The de-
structive white ant of India and China, which
| eats nearly everything save metals, will not
touch santal-wood, and that is the reason why
one sees it made into SO many caskets, boxes
| and such things that come from Asia. Amber.
| girls is another old favoritc with the perfumers
! though nobody seems to care about it any
more. 1t has been commonly supposed to be-
OF vegetable origin, though in reality it is q
| secretion caused by a disease of the whale; il
| is found floating on the sea. Smelling salt,
seem to have become the latest fashionable
affectation. Half the healthy women one seei
carry smelling bottles, which have recently ap
| peared in all sorts of fanciful shapes some
| even being made in such form as to fit the
palm of the hand under the glove. Such salts
are either prepared by filling the vinaigrette
| with sponge scraps and pouring in as much
ammonia as they will soak up, with two or three
drops of this or that altar to give flavor, OF
carbonate of ammonia in crystals with a per
fuming altar is employed. Lavender altar i.
| the latest fashionable flavor"
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