HERBA R08MAR1NI. 489 



Description — Rosemary has sessile, linear, entire, opposite leaves 

 about an inch in length, revolute at tlie margin ; they are of coriaceous 

 texture, green and glabrous above, densely tomentose and white beneath. 

 Examined under a lens, the tomentum both of the leaves and young 

 shoots is seen to consist of white stellate hairs ; in that of the shoots 

 which is less dense, minute oil-glands are discernible. These glands are 

 of two kinds, large and small, and probably do not yield one and the 

 same oil. The flowers have a campanulate 2-lipped calyx, and a pale 

 blue and white corolla, the upper lip of which is emargiuate and erect, 

 the lower 3-lobed with the central lobe concave and pendulous. The 

 whole 'plant has a veiy agreeable smell and a strong aromatic taste. It 

 flowers in the early spring. 



Production of Essential Oil — Rosemary is cultivated on a very 

 small scale in English herb-gardens, and though a little oil has been 

 occasionally distilled from it, English oil of rosemary is an article prac- 

 tically unknown in commerce. That with which the market is supplied 

 is produced in the south of France and on the contiguous coasts of Italy. 

 The plant, which is plentifully found wild, is gathered in summer (not 

 while in flower) and distilled, the operator being sometimes an itinerant 

 herbalist who carries his copper alembic from place to place, erecting it 

 where herbs are plentiful, and where a stream of water enables him to 

 cool a condenser of primitive construction. 



Oil of rosemary is also produced on a somewhat large scale in the 

 island of Lesina, south of Spalato in Dalmatia, whence it is exported by 

 way of Trieste, even to France and Italy, to the extent of 300 to 350 

 quintals annually.^ 



Some of the French manufacturers of essences ofier oil of rosemary 

 at a superior price as drawn from the fiotvers, by which we presume is 

 meant the flowering tojos, for the separation of the actual flowers would 

 be impracticable on a large scale. The great bulk of the oil found in 

 commerce is however that distilled from the entire plant. 



Chemical Composition — The peculiar odour of rosemary depends 

 on the essential oil, which is the only constituent of the plant that has 

 afforded matter for chemical research. 



LaUemand (1859) by fractional distillation, resolved oil of rosemary 

 into two liquids, — the one a mobile hydrocarbon boiling at 165° C and 

 turning the plane of polarization to the left; the other, boiling between 

 200° and 210° C, deposits when exposed to a low temperature a large 

 quantity of camphor. Gladstone (1864) found the oil to consist almost 

 wholly of a hydrocarbon, C^*'H^®. This, according to our experiments, 

 constitutes about f of the oil ; it deviates the plane of polarization to 

 the left, whereas a fraction boiling at 200° to 210° C. deviates to the 

 right. By warming the latter with nitric acid, we observed the odour 

 of common camphor, and may therefore infer that a compound, 

 QiojjisQ^ is present in the oil under examination. 



From Montgolfier's investigations (1876) it would appear that the 

 stearoptene or camphor above alluded to is a mixture of a dextrogyrate 

 and a Isevogyrate substance. 



1 Unger, Der Eosmarin und seine Verwen- stracted, with a few additions, in Pharm. 

 dung in Dalmatien — Sitzimgsberichle der Journ. ix. (1879) 618. 

 Wiener Akademie, Ivi. (1867) 587 ; ab- 



