94 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
but very lightly joined to the placenta. The picking is continued 
for perfumery purposes up to October 15; after that date the 
flowers are lacking in fragrance. It is said that an acre of land 
will yield about 500 Ibs. of blossom during the season. 
An essential oil is distilled from jasmine in Tunis and Algeria. 
Exhibition specimens of oils of Jasmine have been sent from Cal- 
eutta to Lucknow, but they were probably fixed oils, 2. e. made by 
digesting the flowers in an oil expressed from seeds or nuts; the 
oils perfumed with J. hirsutum and J. Sambac were labelled 
“ Motia-ka-utter” and “ Bella-ka-utter;” that from J. grandi- 
florum was called “ Chamelé-ka-utter ;”’ all these were contami- 
nated with the odour of santal. 
Syrup of jasmine is made by placing im a jar alternate layers of 
the flowers and sugar, covering the whole with wet cloths and 
standing it in a cool place. The perfume is absorbed by the sugar, 
which is converted into a very palatable syrup. 
The true perfume of jasmine, as represented by any of its 
varieties, is unique—not exhaled by any other flower or exactly 
reproducible by any combination of natural products or chemical 
compounds. There are a few flowers whose perfume bears a 
remote resemblance to it, also one chemically-prepared compound, 
hereafter described. An essential oil with a fragrance which has 
been compared to it was obtained by Gleim* from the fresh 
berries of the Benzoin odoriferum, Nees, syn. Laurus Benzoin, a 
deciduous shrub inhabiting damp shady woods m North America. 
It is a bush of 8 or 10 feet high, with oblong or elliptic wedge- 
shaped leaves, and bears clusters of small yellow flowers on naked 
umbels, appearing before the leaves. By distillmg 8 troy ozs. of 
the fresh berries with water, 4 fluid drachms of a colourless vola- 
tile oil were obtained, having a sp. gr. of 0°87, of very fragrant 
odour resembling somewhat that of jasmine. 
The compound known in chemistry as “secondary styrolyl 
acetate” is said to have a pleasant odour resembling that of jas- 
mine ; the method of its formation is as follows :— 
Ethylbenzene, C,H; .C.H;, is formed when ethylene is passed 
into a heated mixture of benzene and aluminium chloride 7, and in 
small quantities when benzene is heated to 100° C. with ethyl ether 
* Amer, Journ. Pharm. [4] v. p. 246. 
+ Bull. Soc. Chim. xxxi. p. 540. 
