COMMERCIAL NOTES AND SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION. 65 
prevails in the wine-trade, and which has led to the substitution of vines for geranium 
in many localities. 
In Réunion also the distillation of geranium oil has diminished. Speculators have 
taken advantage of this state of things by buying up large stocks of geranium oil, to 
the disadvantage of the perfumery industry and of the future of geranium-growing. 
The consequences have not failed to make themselves felt: the geranium oil prices 
have risen considerably, and the demand for substitutes such as geraniol and diphenyl- 
methane has become very brisk. 
On p. 63 of our last Report we referred to an article by E. M. Holmes on the 
scented Pelargonium species. Since then, a continuation of this article has been 
published') in which Holmes gives further particulars of the aroma of numerous 
species and varieties of the genus Pelargonium. 
On the citronellol-content of geranium oils, see p. 121 of the present Report. 
Ginger Oil continues to be cheap, at unchanged prices, inasmuch as all varieties 
of ginger suitable for distillation have been plentiful. 
A sample of ginger oil which has been investigated at Buitenzorg gave a) +13°9"?). 
We have previously come across another sample of dextrorotatory ginger oil, which 
had been distilled from Japanese root’). 
Gingergrass Oil. The prices have kept up well, for although the demand was 
slight, the arrivals were very small, and only just sufficient to cover the requirements. 
The article no longer appears to possess any great importance. 
Guaiac Wood Oil. The oil distilled by us, which is distinguished by special 
purity of aroma, and which on that account is appreciated everywhere, has been 
continuously in brisk demand, but as there have been no difficulties in the way of 
procuring fresh raw material we have been able to maintain our low prices. As a 
matter of interest we may state that the last parcels of wood which have come to 
hand included logs weighing about 2 tons each. Such logs can be handled only by 
the most up-to-date and powerful reduction-plant, such as is, of course, at our disposal. 
Oil of Helichrysum angustifolium. In our Report of October 1911, p. 54, we 
briefly described a sample of oil of Helichrysum angustifolium, DC. (N. O. Composite), 
derived from Dalmatia. Since then we have received from the same source two other 
samples of oil, of which we will also set forth the characters here, in view of the 
fact that little is as yet known of Helichrysum oil. One sample was pale brown, 
soluble in 8 to 9 vols. a.m. of 90 p.c. alcohol, and possessed the following characters: 
diso 0,8923, % — 9°40’, npo00 1,48490, acid v. 2,8, ester v. 39,2, ester v. after acet. 65,8. 
The second sample gave the following values: diso 0,8964, a) — 9° 38’, npo00 1,48422, 
acid v. 1,9, ester v. 56,2, soluble in 10 vols. a.m. of 90 p.c. alcohol. 
Juniper Berry Oil. We have during the winter distilled large quantities of 
excellent Italian berries, which could be bought this season at more advantageous 
1) Perfum. Record 4 (1913) 372. — *) Jaarb. dep. Landb. in Ned.-Indié, Batavia, 1912, 57. — %) See 
Gildemeister and Hoffmann, Die dtherischen Ole, 2-4 Ed., Vol. Il, p. 293. 
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