168 



OTTO OF ROSE. 



i860. imported into London from Turkey, and is then known in the 



London drug trade as Turkish Essence of Geranium. 



Origin of Idris Let us consider what is its origin. The Catalogue of the 

 Turkish Section of the Great Exhibition of 1851 states that it is 

 brought from Mecca. A sample presented by M. Delia Sudda 

 to the ficole de Pharmacie of Paris, has likewise this origin as- 

 signed to it, 1 1 am, moreover, informed by my friend Mr. Maltass, 

 that the Idris oil found at Smyrna is all brought by the pilgrims 

 arriving from Mecca. M. Guibourt has stated to me upon the 

 authority of a gentleman at Constantinople, that the dealers there 

 affirm that the oil in question comes from India by way of 

 Egypt. 



Although it is thus tolerably evident that the essential oil 

 called Idris Yaghi is imported from Mecca, or perhaps from 

 Jeddah, the port of Mecca, all that we know of these places 

 tends to show that it is not produced there. Mecca appears 

 to have no manufactures, but to be entirely supported by the 

 pilgrims who flock to its holy places : besides which, the nature 

 of the country and the climate utterly forbid the idea of a 

 green herb being produced in quantity for distillation. 



Jeddah is also without manufactures, but it has a large trade 

 with various ports on the Ked Sea, as well as with India. 

 Burckhardt, who visited it in 1814, has left a minute description 

 of the various trades carried on, and even the number of persons 

 engaged in each; and it is perfectly clear from his account, 

 that even for the most trifling manufactured articles, Jeddah 

 is dependent either on Egypt or India. 2 



From Bombay, on the other hand, an essential oil is ex- 

 ported, which is undistinguishaUe from the Turkish Essence of 



Idris yaghi, which may signify marsh-mallow oil : and as there is a word in 

 Turkish ( -sc*^ *j! Ebe-gumeji) which is used to denote both the marsh- 

 inallow and one of the common garden geraniums, so it is possible that the 

 Arabic ^j^.^c. idris may have the saiAe double signification : though the 

 application of any term signifying geranium to the essential oil in question, 

 is, as I shall show, only correct in so far as that there is a similarity of 

 odour. 



1 Journal de Pharm. et de Chimie. Tome xxix., p. 310. 



8 Travels in, Arabia, Lond. 1829, 4to, p. 41, &c. 



Jeddah a 

 trading not 

 a manufac- 

 turing place. 



