3U2 ARTI FICIAL VIOLET PERFUM E. 



so small that this discover^• is all the more welcome. As it 

 is quite impossible to extract the delicate perfume of the 

 Lilv of the Valley it is a matter of import to the perfume 

 distillers that an extract with the same scent can now be 

 distilled from an alcohol, kno\A'n as Linalool. In Nature 

 Linalool is prett^' wideh' distributed as a constituent oi 

 various ethereal oils, but it occurs more abundantly in 

 Linalooil, which is obtained from the wood of Mexican 

 and Guianan trees, the first belonging most certainl\' to the 

 Burseraceae and the latter probabh' to the Lauraceae. 

 Crystalline Th^-mol is now much used. This is not 

 distilled from Th^■me but from the seeds of the East 

 Indian Umbellate Ptychotis Ajinvaii: also Menthol, which, 

 tliough not used in the manufacture of perfumes, forms 

 an ingredient of remedies for headache and is used as 

 snuff. Not long ago two substances were artificialh- 

 produced, "Iron" and "Jonon". The aroma of both 

 these almost exacth' corresponds to that of ^^iolet blos- 

 soms. Mereh' opening a test-tube tilled with these ex- 

 tracts is suflicient to scent a whole room with the odour 

 of \'iolets. It is a remarkable fact that at times these 

 two extracts do not smell as strongh' as at others and 

 fresh \'iolets exhibit the same variabilit\' in strength of 

 odour. Iron is extracted Irom the so-called 'A^iolet 

 root", tlie dried root-stock of Li's florcniiita ; but it is 

 sold at a very high price, as a hundred kilogrammes of 

 root-stock onh' ^•ield from eight to thirt^• grammes of 

 Iron. It is therefore of great importance to the perfume 

 industry- that the manufacture of Jonon from Citral, 

 which is a cfjnstituent ol C^itron-oll and is still more 



