BREEDING FOR PERFUME 



So with flowers; it is entirely feasible to 

 breed a flower so that it shall have a given 

 amount of volatile oil, selecting through 

 generations those flowers which show increas- 

 ing amounts of this substance, — determined 

 by analysis, — and by rigid selection and ex- 

 clusion developing those, as in the corn, 

 which have in their composition the requi- 

 site amount of oil for conserving the per- 

 fume. It is not always the flower with the 

 most powerful fragrance that is convertible 

 into the largest amount of perfume, but 

 the valuable one is that which carries the 

 perfume most completely in its oil. The 

 odor depends, too, quite frequently upon the 

 quality rather than the quantity of this oil. 



Given, then, a flower needing more fra- 

 grance, one having no odor but in which it 

 is desirable that an odor shall be placed, 

 one with a disagreeable odor needing change, 

 or one calling for a certain per cent of 

 essential oil to mask its fragrance and aid 

 in converting it into perfume, — they are all 

 to be made over to order. 



In the mountains of Bulgaria, where the 

 attar of roses reaches its height of produc- 



187 



