FRANGIPANI. 197 



Many receipts are extant for the perfuming of gloves, and 

 though some of them are curious, they are too lengthy for me 

 to quote more than the titles. Here, in the Secreti de la Signora 

 Isabella Cortese, ne qucdi si contengono Cose Miner ali, Medici- 

 nali } Arteficiose cd Alchimiche, e molte de VArte Profumatoria, 

 appartenenti a oyni gran Signora (Venet., 1574, 12mo), we 

 find directions for " Concia di guanti perfettissima, con nmsco 

 ed ambracan," and again "Concia di guanti senza musco perfetta." 

 I have also before me, from an old French work published at The Secrets of 

 Lyons in 1657, 1 the precise directions for " Civette tres-exquise AIexis - 

 pour parfumer gands et en oindre les mains." In these com- 

 positions musk, ambergris, and civet, were the chief perfumes ; 

 and as they were applied inside the gloves, combined with some 

 sort of oil or grease, their use at the present day would be 

 thought intolerable. The gloves of Frangipani were also pre- 

 pared with grease, as I think we may gather from the following 

 lines of Cerisantes : 2 



" Amice, nil me sicut ante& juvat 

 Pulvere vel Cyprio 

 Comam nitentem pectere ; 



Vel quas Britannus texuit subt-i liter 

 Mille modis varias 

 Jactare ventis tsenias ; 



Vel quam perunxit Frangipanes ipsemet ' 

 Pelie, manum gracilem 

 Coram puellis promere." 



The word Franchipanne, or Frangipane, is applied in French 

 cookery to a sort of pastry composed of almonds, cream, and 

 sugar. In the West Indies it is used to designate the fruits of 

 Plumiera alba, L., and P. rubra, L, because, according to Me*rat 

 and De Lens, 3 " on retrouve dans ces fruits murs le gout de nos 

 franchipanes." If these fruits are eatable, it is remarkable that 

 neither Sloane nor Lunan mentions the fact. Frangipanicr is 

 however, the French name of the Plumiera. 



1 Les Secrets du Seigneur Alexis Piemontois. 



2 They form part of an ode addressed " Ad Vincentem Victurum," which 

 may be found at the end of the Latin letters of Balzac (Balzacii Carminum 

 Lihri t'rcs : ejusdem Epistolw Selectee, ed. JE>f*. Menagio, Paris, 1650, 4to). 



3 Diet, de la Matiere Medicale, tome v. 405. 



