LICHENS IN PERFUMERY 419 



b. Lichens as Hair-powder. In the days of white-powdered hair, 

 use was occasionally made of Ramalina calicaris which was ground down 

 and substituted for the starch that was more commonly employed. 



In older books on lichenology constant reference is made to a hair- 

 powder called " Pulvis Cyprius " or " Cyprus powder " and very celebrated 

 in the seventeenth century. It was believed to beautify and cleanse the hair 

 by removing scurf, etc. Evernia prunastri was one of the chief ingredients 

 of the powder, but it might be replaced by Physcia ciliaris or by Usnea. 

 The virtue of the lichens lay in their capacity to absorb and retain perfume. 

 The powder was for long manufactured at Montpellier and was a valuable 

 monopoly. Its composition was kept secret, but Bauhin' (J.) published an 

 account of the ingredients and how to mix them. Under the title " Pulvis 

 Cyprius Pretiosius" a more detailed recipe of the famous powder was given 

 by Zwelser^, a Palatine medical doctor. The lichen employed in his pre- 

 paration, as in Bauhin's, is Usnea, but that may include both Evernia and 

 Physcia as they are all tree plants. He gives elaborate directions as to the 

 cleaning of the lichen from all impurities — it is to be beaten with a stick, 

 washed repeatedly with limpid and pure water, placed in a linen cloth and 

 dried in the sun till it is completely bleached and deprived of all odour and 

 taste. 



When well dried it was placed in a basket in alternate layers with freshly 

 gathered, entire flowers of roses and jasmine (or flowers of orange and citrus 

 when possible). The whole was compressed by a heavy weight, and each 

 day the flowers were renewed until the "Usnea" was thoroughly impregnated 

 with a very fragrant odour. It was then reduced to a fine powder and ready 

 for other ingredients. To each pound should be added : 



\\ oz. powdered root of white Iris. 



1^ oz. of Cyperus (a sedge). 



I scruple or half drachm of musk reduced to a pulp with fragrant spirit 

 of roses. 



\ drachm of ambergris dissolved in a scruple of genuine oil of roses, or 

 oil of jasmine or oranges as may be preferred. 



Zwelser adds : 



"This most fragrant royal powder when sprinkled on the head invigorates 

 by its remarkably pleasant odour; by its astringency and dryness it removes 

 all impurities, and, since it operates with no viscosity nor sticks firmly either 

 to skin or hair, it is easily removed from the hair of the head." 



1 Bauhin 1650, p. 88. ' Zwelser 1672. 



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