PERFUMES. 
(SEE ALSO ““ ESSENTIAL’ OMS”) 
ALTHOUGH many Australian plants (notably a few of the wattles) 
have sweet-scented flowers, the author is not aware of any serious 
attempt having yet been made in the colonies to utilize their 
perfumes. Several of the essential oils, ¢.g., Backhousta citriodora, 
Eucalyptus maculata, var. cttriodora and E. Statgeriana, page 
254 et seq., obtained from the leaves of plants are really 
perfumes, and their chief use is in scenting soaps, and other 
preparations. But the quantity obtained is but small, and the 
plants used are wild. The advice to landowners to try the 
planting of perfume plants has been frequently given, but it does 
not appear to promise a heavy profit immediately, and so the 
industry is neglected. Many parts of littoral Australia are very 
gardens of flowers, and for a comfortable selector to establish the 
minor industry of flower-farming and storage of their perfumes, 
there would be but little outlay; the time required would chiefly 
be odd moments, while the produce would be a valuable com- 
modity. But, however much we may regret it, we must acknow- 
ledge that there is too little enterprise amongst those of us engaged 
in tilling the soil. 
The following is interesting, being from the pen of an 
authority on perfumery, and one who had travelled in Australia, 
and who had facilities for learning about Australia not possessed 
by many dwellers in Europe :— 
‘‘The commercial value of flowers is of no mean importance 
to the wealth of nations. But, vast as is the consumption of 
perfumes by the people under the rule of the British Empire, 
little has been done in England, either at home or in her tropical 
colonies, towards the establishment of flower-farms, or the pro- 
