42 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
PERFUMES SOMEWHAT RESEMBLING THE Rose. 
Geranium. 
African, Spanish, French, and Réunion geranium oil is derived 
from three species of Pelargonium, the P. odoratissimum (Will- 
denow)*, P. capitatum (Aiton)t, and P. roseum (Willd.)t, a variety 
of P. radula (Ait.)§; but the plants in actual cultivation are 
varieties of these pelargoniums, and are not true in character to 
specimens of the above-named as grown in England, nor do they 
exactly accord with descriptions and plates of the same. 
The plants are cultivated in open fields in many parts of 
Algeria, notably at La Trappe de Staoiieli near the Bay of Sidi 
Ferruch, at Castiglione, at Sahel in the good red soil consisting 
of a decomposition of micaceous schists, at Boufarik, at Blidah, 
at Grand Chérakas and at Guyoville, in the environs of Con- 
stantine, and in the plains of Métidja close to Algiers |. 
Originally the plants were cultivated on dry arid slopes, where 
they were stunted in growth but yielded a perfume of great 
delicacy ; now, on the contrary, the plantations are established on 
low-lying and rather humid soil, which yields three crops annually 
instead of one. By a system of irrigation which floods the plan- 
tations, the proprietors force the growth of the plant to a height 
of about 30 inches, and nearly an inch in thickness in the stem. 
Under these conditions the oil is produced in much greater 
abundance, but the quality is sensibly inferior. (‘This observation 
on the immediate effect of a moist soil on the secretions of a plant 
which naturally prefers a dry soil is in accordance with the ob- 
servations of Linnzus.) The irrigation process is now so general 
that for 1 hectare of land cultivated “ dry,” 200 hectares will be 
found “irrigated.” The very superior product of the “ dry ” 
method is rarely sold separately, but is generally mixed with 
common oil (called “ géranium irrigué ”’) to ameliorate the quality. 
Ordinary stills are used for the distillation, which is carried on 
during the whole time of each harvest. It is estimated that 300 
kilos of the plant yield 1 kilo of oil. The plant is gathered a 
* Cavanilles, Monadelphie Diss. iv. t. 103. fig. 1. 
+ Andrews, Coloured engs. of Geraniums. 
¢ Botanist’s Repository, p. 173. § Botanical Mag. t. 95. 
|| Exp. de Paris, 1878, Cat. Spéc. de l’Algérie. 
