Commercial notes and scientific information. 41 



cularly acute in England because parcels of cassia oil shipped to the United States 

 have recently been refused admission in New York, in spite of their adequate aldehyde- 

 value (80 to 85 p. c.) on the ground that they contained rosin. 



We should rejoice if the joint efforts of all the parties interested were at last, to 

 succeed to put a stop to this form of adulteration and we shall be glad to contribute 

 our share towards a betterment of the existing conditions, the more so because it was 

 our firm which introduced the method of estimating the value of cassia oil 1 ). But 

 judging from our present experiences in combating the adulteration in question we 

 cannot take too optimistic a view of the future. 



Cedarwood Oil. In spite of the fact that we manufacture this important oil on 

 the largest possible scale, we have been unable always to meet the requirements of 

 our customers. Even the increase in price which has taken place since our last Report 

 has done nothing to lessen the demand. Whoever has become accustomed to our 

 distillate finds himself unable to do without it, and for this reason our brand has 

 nothing to fear from the competition of the cheap American oil, which is only good 

 enough where no particular importance is attached to the factor of odour. We are 

 informed that the American lead-pencil works, where the distillation of cedarwood oil 

 is a by-product, have recently raised their quotations to a not inconsiderable extent. 



Celery Oil. In view of the enormous prices which have for a long time past 

 been quoted for celery seed, it is of course out of the question to work up consider- 

 able parcels, as we were formerly in the habit of doing. On the contrary, we have 

 now to depend upon special occasional purchases, but such lots are still to be found 

 here and there. Prices have advanced repeatedly and remain exceedingly firm. Com- 

 pared with celery seed oil, our celery oil distilled from the green herb grown in our 

 Miltitz plantations is well worth its price. It has gained a large circle of customers 

 among the manufacturers of all sorts of comestibles. 



On the resolution of selinene, see p. 137. 



Cinnamomum Oils. In our Report of April 1905 (p. 83) we described an oil 

 which had been prepared from the leaves of a tree grown in the grounds of the Villa 

 Rothschild at Cannes. According to the information supplied to us at the time^the 

 tree was identified as Laurus Camphora, L, but the wholly different character of the 

 oil from true camphor-leaf oil made it probable that the tree in question belonged to 

 a different species of Cinnamomum., and this view was confirmed by a careful botanical 

 examination which was subsequently made, when Cinnamomum gland uliferum, Meissn. 

 was established to be the parent-plant. We again give below a brief description of 

 the oil, which was colourless, with a pronounced odour of cardamoms. Constants: 

 d 15 o 0,9058, « D — 26° 12', n D20O 1,46803, acid v. 0,34, ester v. 8,82, ester v. after acet. 46,9, 

 sol. in 1 vol. a. m. 80 p. c. alcohol. The following constituents were found to be present: 

 pinene, camphene (?), about 10 p. c. Z-«-terpineol (m. p. 35°), and especially cineol. 



A sample which was sent to us a few years later showed similar characters: 

 d 15 o 0,9031, « D — 24° 27', acid v. 0,9, ester v. 18,4, ester v. after acet. 55,3, sol. in 1,5 vols, 

 a. m. 80 p. c. alcohol. 



>) SchimmeVs Bericht April 1890, 12; October 1890, 18. 



