The Colorado statesman., 1921-04-30
WHERE SOME OF OUR I'M
PORTS COME FROM
PERFUMES

Milady America paid S4,972,541, dur
ing the last year for perfumes, cos
metics and toilet preparations, a fact
which has led to confused specula-
tion by mere man as to what she did
with them.
The real romance and adventure in
the statement lies not so much in the
uses to which these imports were put
as where they came from. The sunny
isles and lands along the Mediterrane-
an probably grew some of the flowers,
others perhaps were plucked by dark
Moorish hands in Algeria, and mayhap
an animal In the brooding hills of
western China gave its life to furnish
one constituent of the perfume.
The vegetable kingdom is necessarily
the most fertile source of perfumes.
From its flowers such as the rose and
jessamine, and from Its seeds, woods
and barks, such as the spices and san
dalwood, even the most fastidious
connoisseuI would be able to select
either some simple odor or complex
bouquet. Nor are they for perfumes
alone, but for scenting soaps, creams,
pomades, and in making fiavorings
and extracts.
Rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, and
marjoram are found In great pro-
fusion in Mediterranean countries, and
here the chemist can distill the whole
plant and not bother about picking
the flowers. Shakespeare, the unfail-
ing naturalist that he was, made no
error when he chose for Ophelia the
flowers she scattered.
The old-fashioned lavender flowers
in which our grandmothers used to
pack the household linen. and their
rich old lace grew best in France and
England.
The rose geranium, which has such
an exquisite odor is also grown and
distilled in France, but Spain, Algiers,
and the Island of Reunion engage in
the industry. Unlike the lavender,
however, the perfume of the rose ger
anium comes from its leaves and not
from the flowers.
But the country that might well be
known by its scent is Bulgaria, for its
rose crop is second only to its tobacco.
over 1880 acres of land in the prov
inces of Phillppopolis and Stara Ia
CORA are given to the growth of roses
from the petals of which altar of roses
is distilled. In the wonderful gardens
at Kazanlik, Karlovo, iKlisoura and
Stara Zagora, the best of the flowers
are grown.
About four thousand pounds of roses
are produced on an acre of land, but
II takes about two hundred pounds
of petals to produce an ounce of oil,
for an altar which before the war cost
about $3.50 pound.
Roses are grown in other parts of
the Balkans, as well as in Asiatic Tur-
key, and In India, Persia, the Fayum
province in Egypt, and in France. The
industry lately has been introduced
into Germany.
The animal perfumes are extremely
limited in number. Ambergris Is Sc
creted by the sperm whale, civit by the
animal of the same name, and musk
by the musk OK, the musk rat, and
the musk deer, which is found in the
high Himalayas, Tibet, and eastern
Siberia. About $4,000 ounces of musk,
usually in the grain form, are annual |
ly imported to the United States from |
China and India. Musk has one pc
culiar and almost inexplicable charac-
terlstic. One grain of 1t kept freely |
exposed to the air of q well-ventilated
room, will impregnate the atmosphere
for ten years without sensiSly dimir
,shing In weight.