THE ODOUR OF VIOLET. 109 
the perfume from orris root, the quantity of essential oil being 
exceedingly small, and the solvent removing with it tannin, and a 
very soft resin. 
An examination of a pure sample of the crude product was also 
made by Dr. Hager *, according to which, this substance “ at the 
ordinary temperature has the consistence and colour of the basili- 
con ointment of the German Pharmacopeia; it melts at 38° to 
40° C., forming a clear brownish-yellow liquid, which begins tc 
congeal at 28° C.; it is soluble in 5 to 6 parts of 90 °/, alcohol, 
forming a clear yellow solution at medium temperatures.” 
In the distillation of orris-root the practice of adding sulphuric 
acid to convert the starch into dextrine and glucose is frequently 
followed. In this way the yield of oil is increased—by reason of 
the starch granules which imprison the oil-cells being dissolyed— 
but the delicacy of the odour of the oil is injured. 
Tris germanica is cultivated in Kashmir. It is known in India 
by its common Persian name Bikh-i-banafshah, meaning “ Violet- 
root.” The correct Persian name is Stsan-i-dsmdnjuni. Indian 
orris-root differs from the European inasmuch as the bark of the 
rhizome has not been removed. The rhizomes of different species 
of Iris hardly differ in structure. They consist of a brown epi- 
dermis, composed of compressed and nearly empty cells, covering 
a white cortical cellular tissue containing starch; this is separated 
by a layer of brownish compressed empty cells from the central, 
woody, yellowish tissue of the rhizome. The latter is built up of 
large, thick-walled, spherical porous cells, loaded with starch ; 
here and there between the cells may be seen a prism of oxalate of 
lime. The vascular bundles are numerous, in each, irregular rings 
of spiral vessels surround a central bundle of jointed vessels, 
Bombay is supplied with orris-root from Persia and Kashmir, 
Costus. 
The perfume of this root very much resembles that of orris-root, 
and can, therefore, be classed in the Violet series. 
This plant was well known to the ancients by the Greek name 
kootos and the Syriac name Koshta. Botanically it is known as 
Aplotaxis Lappa, Decaisne (derived from dzXéos, simple, and rd£us, 
series ; the word should therefore be Romanized as Haplotazis). 
* Pharm. Centralhalle, 1875, p. 153, 
