— 86 — 



earlier work on this oil by other investigators. Mr. W. C. Blasdale 

 now writes to us, calling our attention to his work "A heptane 

 from conifer woods" 1 ) which in the discussion at that time 

 unfortunately escaped us. Blasdale has found that the distillates from 

 P. Jeffrey i and P. Sabiniana boiling at 96 to 97°, consist without 

 doubt of heptane. The two species are very widely distributed 

 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the first species is usually 

 found only at altitudes of 4000 feet, the latter in lower districts. 

 A large percentage of the "abietine" which was formerly placed on 

 the market, originated from P. Jeffrey 7; but Blasdale is unable to 

 indicate the source of that used nowadays. 



Rose Oil, Bulgarian. Owing to the large quantity of matter, 

 the publication on the part of the Chamber of Commerce of Philip- 

 pople, of the Report on the Meeting of Rose oil Manufacturers and 

 Traders, held on July I st last, has been further delayed, so 

 that we are still unable to place before our readers the details 

 which will doubtless be interesting. The proposals submitted by the 

 Meeting have up to the present only been adopted in so far as they 

 apply to the control of the thermometers, and the Government has 

 also taken steps to place a control on the scales employed in the 

 rose oil trade, so that the small producers may not be cheated when 

 selling their oil. The other proposals formulated by the Meeting, 

 which we mentioned in our last October Report, have for the present 

 only been "noted". 



The rose oil market has become decidedly firmer during the last 

 few weeks, as the winter was very severe in some districts, and in 

 consequence of this the cultivation is said to have suffered consider- 

 ably here and there. But up to the present it has not been possible 

 to ascertain anything definite on this point. 



Our correspondents have sent us the following tables which are in 

 so far particularly interesting, as it appears from them that in 1898, 

 1899 and 1903 much more rose oil was exported from Bulgaria 

 than was produced, — a clear proof of the increasing adulteration. 

 In forming an opinion on the export figures it must, of course, be 

 taken into account, that they occasionally also include the stocks 

 carried over from the previous year, and although the divergences 

 may thus be explained to some extent, there remain quite con- 

 siderable differences which can probably only be attributed to an 

 "artificial extension" of the production. Although the difference be- 

 tween the two amounts in the year 1904 is comparatively small, we 

 are not inclined to believe in an improvement in the situation, until 

 further comparative data for the years 1 905 and 1 906 are available. 



*) Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. 23 (1901), 162; Chem. Centralbl. 1901, I. 1143. 



