— 146 — 



the forests of the mountains and the shore-region. Its flowers have an 

 exceptionally sweet odour, and in some parts of Africa, although not in 

 Togo, they are used for the preparation of distilled aromatic waters. 



Butyrospermum Parkii, (G. Don), rvotschy (N. O. Sapotaceae) ; the Schi- 

 tree, resembles the oak in its gnarled habit. The flowers grow in close 

 clusters at the end of the branches and possess a sweet odour of honey. 



Jasminum gardeniodorum, Gilg. (Oleaceas), a twining shrub, has highly 

 odoriferous white flowers with an odour reminding of gardenias rather 

 than of jasmine. According to Warnecke, the plant is in flower almost 

 all the year round and may possibly be useful as perfumery-material. 



Lippia adoensis, Hochst. (N. O. Verbenaceas), a shrub known to the 

 Natives as Nynoa or Fasau, grows everywhere. Its leaves have an odour 

 of peppermint. 



A treatise by F. Rabak 1 ), published by the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, deals with the preparation of essential oils and the cultivation of 

 odoriferous plants in the United States. The author, in an introduction 

 dealing with the subject generally, reviews the crops, and especially the 

 harvesting-time of the oil-yielding plants, and relates the results of ex- 

 periments in the cultivation of peppermint, bergamot mint (Mentha citrata) 2 ), 

 and wormwood. In the cases of peppermint and wormwood the ester- 

 content was considerably higher in the later than in the earlier stages of 

 growth, but the yield diminished as the season advanced. The plants were 

 distilled both in the green and the dry state, when it was found that the 

 ester-content of the oil from dry herb was much higher than that of oil 

 from green herb. The author explains this phenomenon by an alleged 

 formation of ester during the drying and storage, but this we regard as 

 highly improbable. Rather are we of opinion that in the course of the 

 drying of the leaves a portion of the terpenes becomes resinified, and that 

 the more volatile constituents, such as the alcohols, are given off, while 

 the less volatile esters remain behind 3 ). Furthermore, we believe that it 

 is not improbable that a portion of the esters decomposes during the 

 distilling of the green herb, for it is difficult to expel the oil from green 

 material, while with dry herb distilling proceeds quickly and easily, for 

 which reason the esters are only split up to a very slight extent. In any 

 case we consider the author's conclusion as premature, and we think that 

 it would be very desirable to discover what were the constituents of the 

 oil from green and from dry herb respectively. 



2 ) U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 195. Also see 

 Americ. Perfum. 5 (1910), 192. 



2 ) Report April 1904, 95. 



3 ) Comp. the chapter "Olverluste des Pflanzenmaterials von der Ernte bis zur 

 Destination" in v. Rechenbergs "Theorie der Gewinnung und Trennung der atherischen Ole" 

 (Miltitz b. Leipzig, 1910) pp. 278, 279. 



