- 8 4 - 



course, impossible to foresee; but in any case it will take many months 

 before a return of the quotations to a normal basis can be reckoned upon. 



Pine needle Oils. Although the scarcity of pure oil from 

 Pinus montana seems at last to have come to an end, we have 

 unfortunately to report that the lack of oil from the cones of Abies 

 alba (01. templini) has lately made itself felt in an unpleasant manner. 

 The modest stocks existing in Switzerland have become completely 

 exhausted, and whatever we endeavoured to obtain from second hand 

 showed such deviations in the constants, that we could not run the 

 risk of offering these goods to our clients as a makeshift. A large 

 number of our clients use Siberian pine needle oil as a welcome 

 and cheap substitute, and we do not wish to miss this opportunity 

 of calling again attention to the extreme usefulness of this oil both 

 in perfumery and for technical purposes. According to the practical 

 tests made by us, Siberian pine needle oil is very specially adapted 

 for domestic and transparent soaps, because it possesses a pleasant 

 aromatic and powerful odour which has a very refreshing effect. In 

 view of the high prices of citronella oil, safrol, spike oil, camphor 

 oil, etc., this article, which has the additional advantage of being 

 cheap, deserves without any doubt full attention. 



In the oil from the needles of Pinus halepensis Mill., of Algeria, 

 E. Grimal 1 ), succeeded in detecting, while engaged in his work in 

 our laboratory, phenyl ethyl alcohol, which up to the present had 

 only been found in neroli and rose oils. Grimal had saponified the 

 fraction of the oil passing over between 120 and i35°(iomm. pressure), 

 and fractionated the alcoholic constituents extracted with ether. The 

 portions then passing over from 95 to 98 (8 mm. pressure), after 

 treatment with phthalic anhydride, and saponification of the ester 

 formed, yielded a liquid with a highly aromatic odour, which distilled 

 at ordinary pressure between 218 and 220 , and had the following 

 constants: diso 1,0187; a r> i°i n Di8° 1,52 673. By elementary analysis, 

 its behaviour on oxidation, and its phenyl urethane, the alcohol was 

 sufficiently identified as phenyl ethyl alcohol. 



R. E. Hanson and E. N. Bab cock 2 ) have examined the oils 

 from the needles, cones and branches respectively, of some American 

 conifers. The results are mentioned here briefly: — 



Picea Mariana, "black spruce". The yield of oil from the needles 

 amounted to 0,57 °/ ; diQo 0,9274. 



Tsuga canadensis, "hemlock". The needles and branches gave a 

 yield of oil of 0,4 to 0,46 °/ ; di 5 o 0,9238 to 0,9273. 



*) Compt. rend. 144 (1907), 434. 



-) Journ. Amer. chem. Soc. 28 (1906), 1198. 



