Part 5
ORRIS, properly IRIS.--The dried rhizome of _Iris florentina_ has a very pleasant odor, which, for the want of a better comparison, is said to resemble the smell of violets; it is, however, exceedingly derogatory to the charming aroma of that modest flower when such invidious comparisons are made. Nevertheless the perfume of iris root is good, and well worthy of the place it has obtained as a perfuming substance. The powder of orris root is very extensively used in the manufacture of sachet powders, tooth-powder, &c. It fathers that celebrated "oriental herb" known as "Odonto." For tincture of orris, or, as the perfumers call it,
EXTRACT OF ORRIS,
Take orris root, crushed, 7 lbs. Rectified spirits, 1 gallon.
After standing together for about a fortnight, the extract is fit to take off. It requires considerable time to drain away, and, to prevent loss, the remainder of the orris should be placed in the tincture press. This extract enters into the composition of many of the most celebrated bouquets, such as "Jockey Club," and others, but is never sold alone, because its odor, although grateful, is not sufficiently good to stand public opinion upon its own merits; but in combination its value is very great; possessing little aroma itself, yet it has the power of strengthening the odor of other fragrant bodies; like the flint and steel, which though comparatively incombustible, readily fire inflammable bodies.
PALM.--The odor of palm oil--the fat oil of commerce--is due to a fragrant principle which it contains. By infusion in alcohol, the odoriferous body is dissolved, and resembles, to a certain extent, the tincture of orris, or of extract of violet, but is very indifferent, and is not likely to be brought into use, though several attempts have been made to render it of service when the cultivation of the violets have failed from bad seasons.
PATCHOULY.--_Pogostemon patchouly_ (LINDLEY), _Plectranthus crassifolius_ (BURNETT), is an herb that grows extensively in India and China. It somewhat resembles our garden sage in its growth and form, but the leaves are not so fleshy.
The odor of patchouly is due to an otto contained in the leaves and stems, and is readily procured by distillation. 1 cwt. of good herb will yield about 28 oz. of the essential oil, which is of a dark brown color, and of a density about the same as that of oil of sandal wood, which it resembles in its physical character. Its odor is the most powerful of any derived from the botanic kingdom; hence, if mixed in the proportion of measure for measure, it completely covers the smell of all other bodies.
EXTRACT OF PATCHOULY.
Rectified spirit, 1 gallon. Otto of patchouly, 1-1/4 oz. " rose, 1/4 oz.
The essence of patchouly thus made is that which is found in the perfumers' shops of Paris and London. Although few perfumes have had such a fashionable run, yet when smelled at in its pure state, it is far from agreeable, having a kind of mossy or musty odor, analogous to Lycopodium, or, as some say, it smells of "old coats."
The characteristic smell of Chinese or Indian ink is due to some admixture of this herb.
The origin of the use of patchouly as a perfume in Europe is curious. A few years ago real Indian shawls bore an extravagant price, and purchasers could always distinguish them by their odor; in fact, they were perfumed with patchouly. The French manufacturers had for some time successfully imitated the Indian fabric, but could not impart the odor.
At length they discovered the secret, and began to import the plant to perfume articles of their make, and thus palm off homespun shawls as real Indian! From this origin the perfumers have brought it into use. Patchouly herb is extensively used for scenting drawers in which linen is kept; for this purpose it is best to powder the leaves and put them into muslin sacks, covered with silk, after the manner of the old-fashioned lavender-bag. In this state it is very efficacious in preventing the clothes from being attacked by moths. Several combinations of patchouly will be given in the recipes for "bouquets and nosegays."
PEA (SWEET).--A very fine odor may be abstracted from the flowers of the chick-vetch by maceration in any fatty body, and then digesting the pomade produced in spirit. It is, however, rarely manufactured, because a very close
IMITATION OF THE ESSENCE OF SWEET PEA.
can be prepared thus:--
Extract of tuberose, 1/2 pint. " fleur d'orange, 1/2 " " rose from pomatum, 1/2 " " vanilla, 1 oz.
Scents, like sounds, appear to influence the olfactory nerve in certain definite degrees. There is, as it were, an octave of odors like an octave in music; certain odors coincide, like the keys of an instrument. Such as almond, heliotrope, vanilla, and orange-blossoms blend together, each producing different degrees of a nearly similar impression. Again, we have citron, lemon, orange-peel, and verbena, forming a higher octave of smells, which blend in a similar manner. The metaphor is completed by what we are pleased to call semi-odors, such as rose and rose geranium for the half note; petty grain, neroli, a black key, followed by fleur d'orange. Then we have patchouli, sandal-wood, and vitivert, and many others running into each other.
From the odors already known we may produce, by uniting them in proper proportion, the smell of almost any flower, except jasmine.
The odor of some flowers resembles others so nearly that we are almost induced to believe them to be the same thing, or, at least, if not evolved from the plant as such, to become so by the action of the air-oxidation. It is known that some actually are identical in composition, although produced from totally different plants, such as camphor, turpentine, rosemary. Hence we may presume that chemistry will sooner or later produce one from the other, for with many it is merely an atom of water or an atom of oxygen that causes the difference. It would be a grand thing to produce otto of roses from oil of rosemary, or from the rose geranium oil, and theory indicates its possibility.
The essential oil of almonds in a bottle that contains a good deal of air-oxygen, and but a very little of the oil, spontaneously passes into another odoriferous body, benzoic acid; which is seen in crystals to form over the dry parts of the flask. This is a natural illustration of this idea. In giving the recipe for "sweet pea" as above, we form it with the impression that its odor resembles the orange-blossom, which similarity is approached nearer by the addition of the rose and tuberose.
The vanilla is used merely to give permanence to the scent on the handkerchief, and this latter body is chosen in preference to extract of musk or ambergris, which would answer the same purpose of giving permanence to the more volatile ingredients; because the vanilla strikes the same key of the olfactory nerve as the orange-blossom, and thus no new idea of a different scent is brought about as the perfume dies off from the handkerchief. When perfumes are not mixed upon this principle, then we hear that such and such a perfume becomes "sickly" or "faint" after they have been on the handkerchief a short time.
PINE-APPLE.--Both Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Lyon Playfair have fallen into some error in their inferences with regard to the application of this odor in perfumery. After various practical experiments conducted in a large perfumatory, we have come to the conclusion that it cannot be so applied, simply because when the essence of pine-apple is smelled at, the vapor produces an involuntary action of the larynx, producing cough, when exceedingly dilute. Even in the infinitesimal portions it still produces disagreeable irritation of the air-pipes, which, if prolonged, such as is expected if used upon a handkerchief, is followed by intense headache. It is obvious, therefore, that the legitimate use of the essence of pine-apple (butyric ether) cannot be adapted with benefit to the manufacturing perfumer, although invaluable to the confectioner as a flavoring material. What we have here said refers to the artificial essence of pine-apple, or butyrate of ethyloxide, which, if very much diluted with alcohol, resembles the smell of pine-apple, and hence its name; but how far the same observations are applicable to the true essential oil from the fruit or epidermis of the pine-apple, remains to be seen _when_ we procure it. As the West Indian pine-apples are now coming freely into the market, the day is probably not distant when demonstrative experiments can be tried; but hitherto it must be remembered our experiments have only been performed with a body _resembling in smell_ the true essential oil of the fruit. The physical action of all ethers upon the human body is quite sufficient to prevent their application in perfumery, however useful in confectionary, which it is understood has to deal with another of the senses,--not of smell, but of taste. The commercial "essence of pine-apple," or "pine-apple oil," and "jargonelle pear-oil," are admitted only to be _labelled_ such, but really are certain organic acid ethers. For the present, then, perfumers must only look on these bodies as so many lines in the "Poetry of Science," which, for the present, are without practical application in his art.
PINK.--_Dianthus Caryophyllus._--The clove pink emits a most fragrant odor, "especially at night," says Darwin.
"The lavish pink that scents the garden round,"
is not, however, at present applied in perfumery, except in name.
IMITATION ESSENCE OF CLOVE PINK.
Esprit rose, 1/2 pint. " fleur d'orange, 1/4 " " " de cassie, 1/4 " " vanilla, 2 oz. Oil of cloves, 10 drops.
It is remarkable how very much this mixture resembles the odor of the flower, and the public never doubt its being the "real thing."
RHODIUM.--When rose-wood, the lignum of the _Convolvulus scoparius_, is distilled, a sweet-smelling oil is procured, resembling in some slight degree the fragrance of the rose, and hence its name. At one time, that is, prior to the cultivation of the rose-leaf geranium, the distillates from rose-wood and from the root of the _Genista canariensis_ (Canary-rose-wood), were principally drawn for the adulteration of real otto of roses, but as the geranium oil answers so much better, the oil of rhodium has fallen into disuse, hence its comparative scarcity in the market at the present day, though our grandfathers knew it well. One cwt. of wood yields about three ounces of oil.
Ground rose-wood is valuable as a basis in the manufacture of sachet powders for perfuming the wardrobe.
The French have given the name jacaranda to rose-wood, under the idea that the plant called jacaranda by the Brazilians yields it, which is not the case; "the same word has perhaps been the origin of palisander--palixander, badly written."--_Burnett_.
ROSE.--
"Go, crop the gay rose's vermeil bloom, And waft its spoils, a sweet perfume, In incense to the skies."
OGILVIE.
This queen of the garden loses not its diadem in the perfuming world. The oil of roses, or, as it is commonly called, the otto, or attar, of roses, is procured (contrary to so many opposite statements) simply by distilling the roses with water.
The otto, or attar, of rose of commerce is derived from the _Rosa centifolia provincialis_. Very extensive rose farms exist at Adrianople (Turkey in Europe); at Broussa, now famous as the residence of Abd-el-Kader; and at Uslak (Turkey in Asia); also at Ghazepore, in India.
The cultivators in Turkey are principally the Christian inhabitants of the low countries of the Balkan, between Selimno, and Carloya, as far as Philippopolis, in Bulgaria, about 200 miles from Constantinople. In good seasons, this district yields 75,000 ounces; but in bad seasons only 20,000 to 30,000 ounces of attar are obtained. It is estimated that it requires at least 2000 rose blooms to yield one drachm of otto.
The otto slightly varies in odor from different districts; many places furnish an otto which solidifies more readily than others, and, therefore, this is not a sure guide of purity, though many consider it such. That which was exhibited in the Crystal Palace of 1851, as "from Ghazepore," in India, obtained the prize.
"Attar of roses, made in Cashmere, is considered superior to any other; a circumstance not surprising, as, according to Hugel, the flower is here produced of surpassing fragrance as well as beauty. A large quantity of rose-water twice distilled is allowed to run off into an open vessel, placed over night in a cool running stream, and in the morning the oil is found floating on the surface in minute specks, which are taken off very carefully by means of a blade of sword-lily. When cool it is of a dark green color, and as hard as resin, not becoming liquid at a temperature about that of boiling water. Between 500 and 600 pounds' weight of leaves is required to produce one ounce of the attar."--_Indian Encyclopædia._
Pure otto of roses, from its cloying sweetness, has not many admirers; when diluted, however, there is nothing to equal it in odor, especially if mixed in soap, to form rose soap, or in pure spirit, to form the esprit de rose. The soap not allowing the perfume to evaporate very fast, we cannot be surfeited with the smell of the otto.
The finest preparation of rose as an odor is made at Grasse, in France. Here the flowers are not treated for the otto, but are subjected to the process of maceration in fat, or in oil, as described under jasmine, heliotrope, &c.
The rose pomade thus made, if digested in alcohol, say 8 lbs. of No. 24 Pomade to one gallon of spirit, yields an esprit de rose of the first order, very superior to that which is made by the addition of otto to spirit. It is difficult to account for this difference, but it is sufficiently characteristic to form a distinct odor. See the article on fleur d'orange and neroli (pp. 77, 78), which have similar qualities, previously described. The esprit de rose made from the French rose pomade is never sold retail by the perfumer; he reserves this to form part of his _recherche_ bouquets.
Some wholesale druggists have, however, been selling it now for some time to country practitioners, for them to form extemporaneous rose-water, which it does to great perfection. Roses are cultivated to a large extent in England, near Mitcham, in Surrey, for perfumers' use, to make rose-water. In the season when successive crops can be got, which is about the end of June, or the early part of July, they are gathered as soon as the dew is off, and sent to town in sacks. When they arrive, they are immediately spread out upon a cool floor: otherwise, if left in a heap, they heat to such an extent, in two or three hours, as to be quite spoiled. There is no organic matter which so rapidly absorbs oxygen, and becomes heated spontaneously, as a mass of freshly gathered roses.
To preserve these roses, the London perfumers immediately pickle them; for this purpose, the leaves are separated from the stalks, and to every bushel of flowers, equal to about six pounds' weight, one pound of common salt is thoroughly rubbed in. The salt absorbs the water existing in the petals, and rapidly becomes brine, reducing the whole to a pasty mass, which is finally stowed away in casks. In this way they will keep almost any length of time, without the fragrance being seriously injured. A good rose-water can be prepared by distilling 12 lbs. of pickled roses, and 2-1/2 gallons of water. "Draw" off two gallons; the product will be the double-distilled rose-water of the shops. The rose-water that is imported from the South of France is, however, very superior in odor to any that can be produced here. As it is a residuary product of the distillation of roses for procuring the attar, it has a richness of aroma which appears to be inimitable with English-grown roses. There are four modifications of essence of rose for the handkerchief, which are the _ne plus ultra_ of the perfumer's art. They are,--esprit de rose triple, essence of white of roses, essence of tea rose, and essence of moss rose. The following are the recipes for their formation:--
ESPRIT DE ROSE TRIPLE.
Rectified alcohol, 1 gallon. Otto of rose, 3 oz.
Mix at a summer heat; in the course of a quarter of an hour the whole of the otto is dissolved, and is then ready for bottling and sale. In the winter season beautiful crystals of the otto--if it is good--appear disseminated through the esprit.
ESSENCE OF MOSS ROSE.
Spirituous extract from French Rose pomatum, 1 quart. Esprit de rose triple, 1 pint. Extracts fleur d'orange pomatum, 1 " " of ambergris, 1/2 " " musk, 4 oz.
Allow the ingredients to remain together for a fortnight; then filter, if requisite, and it is ready for sale.
ESSENCE OF WHITE ROSE.
Esprit de rose from pomatum, 1 quart. " " triple, 1 " " violette, 1 " Extracts of jasmine 1 pint. " patchouly, 1/2 "
ESSENCE OF TEA ROSE.
Esprit de rose pomade, 1 pint. " " triple, 1 " Extract of rose-leaf geranium, 1 " " sandal-wood, 1/2 " " neroli, 1/4 " " orris, 1/4 "
ROSEMARY.--
"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance."
SHAKSPEARE.
By distilling the _Rosmarinus officinalis_ a thin limpid otto is procured, having the characteristic odor of the plant, which is more aromatic than sweet. One cwt. of the fresh herb yields about twenty-four ounces of oil. Otto of rosemary is very extensively used in perfumery, especially in combination with other ottos for scenting soap. Eau de Cologne cannot be made without it, and in the once famous "Hungary water" it is the leading ingredient. The following is the composition of
HUNGARY WATER.
Rectified alcohol, 1 gallon. Otto of English rosemary, 2 oz. " lemon-peel, 1 oz. " balm (_Melissa_), 1 oz. " mint, 1/2 drachm. Esprit de rose, 1 pint. Extract of fleur d'orange, 1 "
It is put up for sale in a similar way to eau de Cologne, and is said to take its name from one of the queens of Hungary, who is reported to have derived great benefit from a bath containing it, at the age of seventy-five years. There is no doubt that clergymen and orators, while speaking for any time, would derive great benefit from perfuming their handkerchief with Hungary water or eau de Cologne, as the rosemary they contain excites the mind to vigorous action, sufficient of the stimulant being inhaled by occasionally wiping the face with the handkerchief wetted with these "waters." Shakspeare giving us the key, we can understand how it is that such perfumes containing rosemary are universally said to be "so refreshing!"
SAGE.--A powerful-scenting otto can be procured by distillation from any of the _Salvieæ_. It is rarely used, but is nevertheless very valuable in combination for scenting soap.
Dried sage-leaves, ground, will compound well for sachets.
SANTAL.--_Santalum album_.
"The santal tree perfumes, when riven, The axe that laid it low." CAMERON.
This is an old favorite with the lovers of scent; it is the wood that possesses the odor. The finest santal-wood grows in the island of Timor, and the Santal-wood Islands, where it is extensively cultivated for the Chinese market. In the religious ceremonies of the Brahmins, Hindoos, and Chinese, santal-wood is burned, by way of incense, to an extent almost beyond belief. The _Santala_ grew plentifully in China, but the continued offerings to the Buddahs have almost exterminated the plant from the Celestial Empire; and such is the demand, that it is about to be cultivated in Western Australia, in the expectation of a profitable return, which we doubt not will be realized; England alone would consume tenfold the quantity it does were its price within the range of other perfuming substances. The otto which exists in the santal-wood is readily procured by distillation; 1 cwt. of good wood will yield about 30 ounces of otto.
The white ant, which is so common in India and China, eating into every organic matter that it comes across, appears to have no relish for santal-wood; hence it is frequently made into caskets, jewel-boxes, deed-cases, &c. This quality, together with its fragrance, renders it a valuable article to the cabinet-makers of the East.
The otto of santal is remarkably dense, and is above all others oleaginous in its appearance, and, when good, is of a dark straw color. When dissolved in spirit, it enters into the composition of a great many of the old-fashioned bouquets, such as "Marechale," and others, the formulæ of which will be given hereafter. Perfumers thus make what is called
EXTRAIT DE BOIS DE SANTAL.
Rectified spirits, 7 pints. Esprit de rose, 1 pint. Essential oil, _i.e._ otto, of santal, 3 oz.
All those EXTRACTS, made by dissolving the otto in alcohol, are nearly white, or at least only slightly tinted by the color of the oil used. When a perfumer has to impart a delicate _odeur_ to a lady's _mouchoir_, which in some instances costs "no end of money," and is an object, at any cost, to retain unsullied, it behooves his reputation to sell an article that will not stain a delicate white fabric. Now, when a perfume is made in a direct manner from any wood or herb, as tinctures are made, that is, by infusion in alcohol, there is obtained, besides the odoriferous substance, a solution of coloring and extractive matter, which is exceedingly detrimental to its fragrance, besides seriously staining any cambric handkerchief that it may be used upon; and for this reason this latter method should never be adopted, except for use upon silk handkerchiefs.
The odor of santal assimilates well with rose; and hence, prior to the cultivation of rose-leaf geranium, it was used to adulterate otto of roses; but is now but seldom used for that purpose.
By a "phonetic" error, santal is often printed "sandal," and "sandel."
SASSAFRAS.--Some of the perfumers of Germany use a tincture of the wood of the _Laurus sassafras_ in the manufacture of hair-washes and other nostrums; but as, in our opinion, it has rather a "physicky" smell than flowery, we cannot recommend the German recipes. The _Eau Athenienne_, notwithstanding, has some reputation as a hair-water, but is little else than a weak tincture of sassafras.
SPIKE.--French oil of lavender, which is procured from the _Lavandula spica_, is generally called oil of spike. (See Lavender.)
STORAX and TOLU are used in perfumery in the same way as benzoin, namely, by solution in spirit as a tincture. An ounce of tincture of storax, tolu, or benzoin, being added to a pound of any very volatile perfume, gives a degree of permanence to it, and makes it last longer on the handkerchief than it otherwise would: thus, when any perfume is made by the solution of an otto in spirit, it is usual to add to it a small portion of a substance which is less volatile, such as extract of musk, extract of vanilla, ambergris, storax, tolu, orris, vitivert, or benzoin; the manufacturer using his judgment and discretion as to which of these materials are to be employed, choosing, of course, those which are most compatible with the odor he is making.