204 Perfume from Pine- Sap. 



officinal resinous products of conifers may be mentioned Burgundy 

 pitch, from Abies excelsa, or Norway spruce ; Canada pitch, from the 

 Tsuga Catiadensis, or hemlock ; Venice turpentine, from the Larix 

 Europea, or larch ; gum sandarac, from the Callitris quadrivalvis ; 

 frankincense, from the Pinus tedia, etc. 



815. Various essential oils are distilled from the leaves of the 

 hemlock, cedar, savin, juniper, spruce, and other evergreens, and 

 are used medicinally. It is probable that amber is a resinous pro- 

 duct of a coniferous tree, although found only in a fossil form. 

 Kauri is the resin of the Dammara amtralis, but gathered only from 

 the soil formerly covered by forests of the kauri pine of New Zealand. 



Perfume from Pine Sap. 



816. A perfume resembling that from the vanilla bean, and ap- 

 plicable to the same uses, has in recent years been obtained from 

 the sap of the pine and other conifers. The substance has been 

 called coniferin, and is collected and prepared as follows : 



817. As the trees are cut down in the summer months (about 

 June 1 to August 15), the bark is taken off, and the sap or cambium 

 is scraped off from the trunk with some sharp instrument, wiped 

 off upon a sponge and squeezed into a tin pail. A tree of vigorous 

 growth and medium size will yield from four to five litres of sap 

 (about as many quarts), and where the soil is damp and fertile 

 nearly twice as much. It is greater when gathered in warm damp 

 \reather than when it is cold and dry. 



818. The sap, when first collected, is milky and clouded, and 

 more or less mixed with impurities, and it contains a kind of glu- 

 cose, albumen, and coniferiu. It would soon ferment and spoil, and 

 must be strained, after boiling ten or fifteen minutes, to coagulate 

 the albumen. It is then evaporated down to one-fifth of its volume, 

 when it is clear and of a yellowish color. It is then set aside over 

 night in a cool place, when little white crystals of coniferin will de- 

 posit. These are separated by straining and pressing out the liquid 

 through cloths. 



819. A person will collect about three to four pints in a day. 

 The price of the dry crystalline substance, as prepared in the forest, 

 is about $18.60 to the pound avoirdupois. The forest of Murat, in 

 France, furnishes from twenty-five to forty pounds a year. The 

 couiferin is taken to Paris, and there, in chemical laboratories, it is 



