- 8 3 - 



country districts. The residue of about 140 tons is in the hands of dealers 

 and exporters, and has been partly sold for future delivery. We have 

 frequently referred to a large parcel of about 100 tons of worm-eaten root 

 which was included in the total stock at the time of our report; half of this 

 has in the meantime been bought by a speculator, who appears to have already 

 disposed of it. The first annual markets of Florentine orris were held in the 

 principal producing districts in the first days of August, and were visited by us. 

 The offers were of little importance and the sellers did not scruple to ask 

 prices which are equivalent to from 80 to 85 marks cif Hamburg for 

 sorts. Naturally such demands did not lead to business. In our opinion, when 

 the first excitement is past we will be able to buy sorts at about 74 marks cif 

 Hamburg. The exports from the end of February to the end of August 1909, 

 totalling about 490 tons, together with the exports of the previous half year, 

 amounting to about 265 tons, give a total export for the last business-year of 

 about 755 tons. The annual exports for the last 7 years have been as follows: — 

 September 190 2 /August 1903 about 840 tons, 



September 1903 /August 1904 „ 820 „ 



September 1904/ August 1905 „ 500 „ 



September 1905 /August 1906 „ 920 „ 



September 1906/ August IQ07 „ 550 „ 



September 1907 /August 1908 „ 525 „ 



September 1908/August 1909 „ 755 „ 



total about 4010 tons, 

 equal to an average of about 701 tons. 



If the exports of Florentine orris in the season which is now beginning 

 should reach the same height as those of last year, there would be no stock 

 left at the beginning of the 19 10 crop. It is, however, a fact that as com- 

 pared with previous years the statistical position of the article has undergone 

 a considerable change." 



Probably the prices of orris oil in the near future will continue 

 to move within the present range of value. 



In an extremely thorough and voluminous paper, G. Merling and 

 R. Welde 1 ) report on the synthesis of the odoriferous principles of 

 violets, especially on the natural, or /?-irone, to obtain which has 

 required years of difficult research. By far the greater part of the 

 authors' work has been carried out in the laboratories of the Farbwerke, 

 of Hoechst; a small portion of it in our own laboratories. The pub- 

 lication (which is to be followed by others) contains in its introduction 

 a concise account of the process of synthesis of the, as yet unknown, 

 isomerides of a- and /?-cycld-citral (zJ t - and zl 2 -cyclo-citral), namely 

 A 3 - and zi 4 -cyclo-citral and their condensation-products with acetone, 

 a- and /?- (natural) irone, as well as theoretical considerations on the 

 structure of the molecules of the odoriferous principles of the violet. 

 From the latter it appears that only cyclic aldehydes of very definite 

 structure, such, for instance, as cyclo-citral and its isomerides are suited 



1 ) Liebig's Annalen 366 (1909), 119. 



6* 



