330 PUCHA-PAT, OR PATCHOULI. 
consisted of half-boxes, containing 50 Ibs, each, others of whole boxes 
holding 110 lbs. each.” (It was considered enough for ten years’ con- 
sumption!) ‘The price asked was six shillings per pound, but there 
were no biddings. This lot came from New York, to which place it 
was said to have been carried from China. The dried tops imported 
into ec are a foot or more in length. The odour is strong and 
iar; I cannot call it agreeable, though some others do, while 
ME persons regard it as disagreeable. It is somewhat analogous to 
at of Chenopodium anthelminticum. The taste of the dried plant is 
very slight. By distillation it yields a volatile oil, on which the odour 
and remarkable properties depend. In Europe it is principally used 
for perfumery purposes. Sachets de Patchouli are sold in the shops. 
They consist of a few grains of the coarsely-powdered herb, mixed with 
cotton-wool, and folded in paper. Placed in drawers, chests, &c., they 
are said to drive away insects from linen, shawls, &c. An Essence de 
Patchouli is used by perfumers, principally for mixing with other scents 
in the preparation of compounded perfumes : for this purpose it is con- 
sidered very useful. In India it = used as an ingredient in tobacco 
and for scentiug the hair of women 
An ingenious writer, in the Gadar E Chronicle (1849, p. 645), on 
the odours of plants, remarks—‘ It has been said, by an eminent 
French perfumer, that the odour of Patchouli was a ‘disgrace to the 
art’; such, however, is the result of fashion, that a year or two ago no 
lady of ton was perfect unless she was enveloped, as it were, iu the 
fragrance of this plant, the odour of which is very peculiar—a sort of 
dry, mouldy, or earthy smell—not very enticing, certainly, by descrip- 
tion, and much less so in reality. The characteristic smell of Chinese 
or Indian Ink is owing to an admixture of this plant in its manufacture. 
In the vegetable world it is the most permanent of odours. The origin 
of its use is this. A few years ago, real Indian shawls bore an ex- 
travagaut price, and purchasers could always distinguish them by their 
odour; in fact, they were perfumed with Patchouli. The French 
manufacturers at length discovered this secret, and used to import this 
plant to perfume articles of their make, and thus palm off home-spun 
shawls for real India!” 
REFERENCES TO THE PLate.—Tab. XI. Flowering branch, nat. 
size. Fig. 1, flowers, buds, and bracteas; fig. 2, portion of a hair from 
the stamens: fig. 3, pistil; fig. 4, anther and part of a filament with 
hair: all more or less magnified, 
