— 131 — 



has acquired a wide circle of regular customers within the past decade 

 or two, especially among tobacco manufacturers. 



Vetiver Oil. We have always at our disposal a considerable stock 

 of excellent oil of our own distilling, and we are therefore in a position 

 to pick out from the arrivals of vetiver root (which are notoriously ir- 

 regular) those parcels which are richest in perfume and most suitable 

 for our purposes. The quality of our distillate is unapproached, and in 

 the preparation of really fine perfumes its employment is indispensable. 

 Reunion vetiver oil continues to be firm. It is true that the exports in 

 the year 1911 reached 975 kilos, and are therefore but little below those 

 of the previous year, when they amounted to 1007 kilos, but reports dated 

 December 31 st state that there are no further supplies in the island. If 

 the production should really be restricted, at it is said will be the case, 

 the prices would of course be correspondingly affected. But so many 

 contradictory statements have obtained currency concerning those articles 

 of produce from Reunion which are of interest to us, that as a matter of 

 course we regard the above report with the same scepticism as the rest. 



The experiments in cultivation which have been carried out at Buiten- 

 zorg with the Akar wangi plant, the non^flowering variety of Andropogon 

 muricatus which occurs in Java 1 ), have shown that when grown in the 

 shade the production of root is unfavourably affected, whereas repeated 

 cutting of the plant has a favourable effect upon the development of 

 the roots. 



Walnut Leaf Oil. As, generally speaking, very little is known of 

 the properties of walnut leaf oil, the following note on two oils, one of 

 which was distilled by us at Miltitz and the other at Barreme, may be of 

 interest. The distillates were of an olive-brown colour and possessed the 

 characteristic odour of walnut-leaves. At about 10° they formed semi- 

 solid, butter-like masses, which melted at about 20°. From the solutions 

 in 90°/o alcohol large quantities of paraffin separated out, which after 

 repeated recrystallisation from alcohol gave m. p. 61 to 62°. The con- 

 stants of the oil are shown in the table below, and in connection with 



Distilled at 



Yield 



d30O 



a D 



nD250 



Acid 

 v. 



Ester 

 v. 



Ester v. 

 after 

 acet. 



► Miltitz 



| 



0,014 o/o 



0,9137 



io° 



1,49657 



9,3 



27,0 



- 



Barrem e 

 83°/o Principal oil 

 17'Vo Water oil . . 1 

 100% Total oil . . 



0,0072 °/o 

 0,00150/o 

 0,0087 0/0 



0,9174 

 0,9231 

 0,9185 



-17° 36' 



— 16° 12' 



— 17° 0' 



1,49177 

 1,49366 

 1,49215 



3,7 



4,7 



9,3 



9,7 



9S,5 



*) Jaarb. dep. landb. in Ned.-Indie, Batavia 1910, 48. 



9* 



