THE ODOUR OF VIOLET. 11s 
religiously wends its way heavenward; with the bulk of the 
Chinese this ceremony is regarded as sufficient to propitiate the 
gods. In India itis a crown monopoly; each village in the vicinity 
of the ‘ Kut’ fields is assessed at a fixed amount yearly, which 
must be delivered in the capital. The Maharaja’s agents buy up the 
surplus at one chilki rupee per maund, and retail it double rate.” 
Besides the above-mentioned uses, it is employed as a medica- 
ment both internally and externally, and is smoked as a narcotic 
and stimulant. 
The opinion was expressed by Guibourt * that the Costus plant 
is nearly allied to the Carlines and Chameleons, the roots of which 
plants are split up on one side and have also the similar gnawed 
appearance. Attention is also drawn to the fact that the ‘‘ White 
Chameleon ” found by Pierre Bélon on the island of Crete pro- 
duced a root so powerfully odorous of violets that the room in 
which specimens were kept became perfumed to such a degree as 
to cause headache. This plant is the “ White Chameleon” of 
the ancient Greeks +. It has a root as thick as a man’s thigh, 
and develops its powerful violet odour when dry. It is the Carlina 
gummifera of Lesson, and identical with the Acarna gummifera, 
Willdenow; the Atractylis gummifera, Linneus, and the Cnicus 
carline folio, gummifer acauleatus of Tournefort. 
Several woods have a well-defined violet odour, as the Acacia 
homalophylla, generally known as “ Myall wood.” It gives off 
its fragrance as long as the wood remains unpolished. This tree 
is very common in the deserts of the interior of Eastern and 
South-eastern Australia, especially in the country along the River 
Murray and its tributaries. Samples exhibited in London from 
Queensland were said to be derived from Acacia pendula. 
A substance having a similar odour has been extracted by benzene 
from the wood of the Picrasma quassioides. 
Amongst flowers, the violet odour is very noticeable in the 
Tritelia uniflora, a lily from Buenos Ayres; Dendrobium hetero- 
carpum, an orchid; also in the Oncidium inosmum, a beautiful 
orchid with yellow flowers spotted with brown. 
* Journal de Chimie médicale, viii. p. 666. 
+ See Lefranc, ‘Sur les plantes connues des Grees sous les noms de Chameleon 
lane et noir,’ Bull. de la Soc. Bot. de France, xiv. p. 48, and Journal de 
Pharmacie, 4° série, vill. p. 572. 
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