498 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEAEING PLANTS 



filaments of which are used for making scented 

 mats, screens, fans, ornamental baslcets and various 

 fancy articles, and are tied in bundles, weighing 

 about two ounces each, which are used for scenting 

 drawers. The latter is the Louisiana utilization of 

 the plants. Prom the roots (called khas or khas- 

 khas) is distilled a fragrant oil used in perfumery. 

 Vetiver is closely related to citronella (Andropogon 

 Nardus), from the leaves of which citronella oil 

 is distilled. 



Vetiver has been introduced into southern Lou- 

 isiana and has become naturalized there, but it has 

 not yet been grown commercially to any extent. 

 It seems to have been introduced here from the 

 West Indies about seventy years ago. There are a 

 few plants in every garden belonging to the native 

 French population of the state. There is one large 

 collection of plants at Shiloh, about sixty-four 

 miles north of New Orleans, and another in St. 

 Bernard parish. 



Dr. Le Monnier, who has the garden at Shiloh, 

 has some 700 plants in nine rows, six feet apart, 

 each plant or tuft consisting of a compact mass 

 about a foot and a half in diameter, giving rise to 

 long stems which in September become jointed 

 canes, one-half inch in diameter, and as much as 

 eight feet high. In September or October he burns 

 the plants, and digs up the roots which have then 

 .produced great numbers of small roots or fila- 

 ments about one thirty-second of an inch in diam- 

 eter and running one to two feet long. These are 

 chopped off close to the central mass, which can 

 then be replanted. The filaments are thoroughly 

 washed in cold water, and, after being dried slowly 

 in a room at a temperature of about 120 degrees, 

 are ready for market. 



The grass is propagated chiefly by transplanting 

 the roots. When once established it forms dense, 

 firmly rooted tufts, rather difficult to eradicate, but 

 not spreading or increasing rapidly. It requires 

 for its best development a rich moist soil of rather 

 open texture. In Louisiana it is grown most eco- 

 nomically on exceedingly sandy soil, the product 

 from which shakes almost entirely clean. 



The period during which vetiver is in active sale 

 in Louisiana is from November to April, after 

 which the stock is mostly exhausted. The whole- 

 sale dealers pay for it at forty to eighty cents per 

 pound. The higher price obtains at the beginning 

 of the season. The quantity of domestic product 

 on the market is very small. Almost every constant 

 user of it has one or more plants in her own gar- 

 den. It has figured in a small way in the importa- 

 tions from France since a very early dat,e. [See 

 Watt, Dictionary of Economic Plants of India, 

 and Dodge, Catalog of Useful Fiber Plants of the 

 World.] 



Wintergreen (GavUheria proaumbens, Lmn.). Eri- 

 caceoe. Fig. 725. 



A slender, creeping, almost woody perennial, 

 with running stems near the surface of the ground 

 and short erect branches, four to six inches high, 

 bearing dark green, leathery, alternate leaves, 

 three to six in number, and small, white, almost 



egg-shaped axillary flowers, which are followed by 

 round bright berries. It is a native of damp woods 

 in the cooler parts of eastern North America. 



Wintergreen herb has been distilled on a small 

 commercial scale for its volatile oil for nearly a 

 century in New England, and for a less time in New 

 York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other mountain- 

 ous states of the East, and as far west as Michigan, 



Fig. 725. Spring or creeping wintergreen (OauUheria 

 procuvibens) . 



where the plant has been abundant. It seems, how- 

 ever, never to have been cultivated for this purpose. 

 It grows in woods from Canada to Georgia and 

 westward to Michigan and Wisconsin. The leaves or 

 herb are gathered in a fresh state, chopped up, and 

 after moistening with water are left standing for 

 about twenty-four hours to permit the develop- 

 ment of the oil, as explained in the introductory 

 paragraph on volatile oils (p. 495). It contains 

 a glucoside, gaultherin, which, when acted on by 

 the splitting ferment gaultherase in the presence 

 of water, yields oil of wintergreen and grape- 

 sugar. It is distilled with steam essentially as 

 described in the general introduction. The usual 

 yield is about .8 per cent. 



Wormseed, American. [See Medicinal, Condimental 

 and Aromatic Plants, page 466.] 



Wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium, Linn.). Com- 

 positx. (Fig. 2750, Cyclopedia of American 

 Horticulture.) 



A perennial-rooted woody herb, two to four feet 

 high, having stout, branching, erect or somewhat 

 decumbent stems; twice or thrice pinnately divided 

 leaves with narrow lobes, pale, finely hairy-woolly, 

 especially beneath; hemispherical flowers in pani- 

 cles; fruit with hairy pappus. A common escape in 

 waste places or along woodsides. 



Wormwood and the oil derived from it by dis- 

 tillation have been known to European medicine for 



