328 SUBSTANCES POUND TO POSSESS 



that there is no difference in kind. But we know 

 that science is greatly indebted to this method, and 

 may fearlessly make use of it here. 



"What kinds of ethereal oils are employed to increase 

 the bouquet of different wines ? 



Portions of fragrant plants are mixed with the 

 must in order to extract their ethereal oil. 



As these plants can be independently examined, we 

 learn from them the quality of those volatile sub- 

 stances which exist in grapes in such small quantities 

 that it is necessary to increase them artificially. Dif- 

 ferent plants are resorted to for different wines, and 

 we have rose leaves, lime and elder flowers, the leaves 

 of the spir&a ulmaria (meadow sweet), the peel of 

 quince pears, the blossom of wild vines, leaves of 

 sal via setacea (sage or clary), and perhaps the 

 ferment oil of the centaury. These and others are 

 commonly added to improve the aroma of wine. Pro- 

 bably the odoriferous ingredients actually exist in the 

 juice of some of the grapes. In order to give the 

 bouquet of good Bordeaux to less agreeable wines, it 

 has become customary to put violet roots and the 

 roots of the Florentine iris in other wine. They con- 

 tain an agreeably-scented stearopten, which Dumas 

 found to be =C 4 H 8 O 1 . 



Bley* has separated a fragrant ethereal oil by 

 distillation from raspberries, thirty kilogrammes 

 yielded, however, only 5 grammes. This example 



* Arch, der Pharm. Bd. 13, s. 248. 



