Commercial notes and scientific information. 83 



we stated that at his suggestion similar experiments had been made elsewhere, for 

 instance in German South West Africa. Thorns had obtained the plants through the 

 intermediary of one of his Japanese students from a farmer in Yamagata-Ken. The 

 distinguished authority on the Men^a-species, Briquet, of Geneva, had undertaken the 

 botanical examination of the plants, and had pronounced Mentha canadensis var. 

 piperascens, Briq. to be the parent-plant. Briquet supposes that the species is identical 

 with that which had been identified by Holmes as Mentha arvensis DC. var. pipterascens. 

 Holmes. 



The accuracy of Briquet's view is doubted in an article on Japanese peppermint 

 oils which appears in an English journal 1 ). It is here suggested that two different 

 species are in question. The plant which was examined by Holmes, and at the 

 same time by the French botanist Maluivaud was recognised by both without doubt 

 as being a variety of Mentha arvensis, and showed well-marked differences from the 

 species examined by Briquet. This plant had been introduced into Europe from Japan 

 by Thomas Christy towards the end of the 'eighties and had been grown in Sydenham 

 and at Sevenoaks. An oil distilled from these plants in the year 1888 was obviously 

 deficient in menthol, for even when the bottle was placed in ice no menthol crystallised 

 out. As on the other hand the peppermint oil distilled by Thorns was very rich in 

 menthol, this would seem to afford a further proof that the two plants were different. 



We merely reproduce here the views of the English author and will only, in 

 addition, quote from his article the statement that Chinese peppermint oil, to which 

 we have also made reference in previous Reports (October 1910, 96) is probably the 

 product of Mentha canadensis var. glabrata, of Prof. Arthur Gray. 



Pimento Oil has remained unaltered. There have been ample opportunities for 

 acquiring distilling material at reasonable rates, and there has therefore been no lack 

 of oil. There have been no changes in the price. 



Pine-needle Oils. The sphere of employment of Siberian pine-needle oil, an article 

 of which we import enormous quantities, is extending from year to year, for the reason 

 that its moderate price has given it a footing in the manufacture of an exceptionally 

 wide range of technical articles, such as desinfectants, boot-polishes, lubricants, 

 artificial turpentine oils, lacquers, Sjc. Unfortunately business has been seriously im- 

 peded by price-cutting on the part of certain firms. The parcels in which price-cutting 

 took place were mostly consignments which had to be sold at almost any price they 

 would fetch, and which partly proved to be doctored to a considerable extent with 

 pine-tar oil. There has been a very sustained demand for our oil, of which the quality 

 is subject to stringent control, and as for the present there is no over-production in oil 

 of this grade there is no prospect of any reduction in prices in the near future. 



The advance in prices of oil of Pinus Pumilio which we prognosticated in our 

 last Report has in the meantime actually taken place, one of the leading producers 

 in Lower Austria having retired from the market, and the call upon the other factories 

 having consequently become much greater. So far there is no further news concerning 

 the new source of production in Transylvania to which reference was made in our 

 Report, but we hear that preparations have latterly been made in Galicia for exploiting 

 the extensive Pumilio pine areas in that country. It is therefore to be expected that 

 the shortage caused by the retirement of the Lower Austrian manufacturer will be 



x ) Perfum. and Essent. Oil Record 4 (1913), 32. 



6* 



