28 ; REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. OCTOBER 1915. 
distilled in accordance with all the rules of the art. It is only through our own endea- 
vours that it has at last become known what lavender oil should really be, and that 
the method of distillation in vogue in the South of France is really quite wrong, inas- 
much as it decomposes the most valuable constituent of lavender oil, namely, linalyl 
acetate. A further advantage, moreover, which our appearance in the South of France 
has brought about to the consumers of lavender oil consists in the fact that adulteration 
with oil of spike, which had been practised on a very large scale formerly, has decreased 
very much of late, because private distillers are now —— on supplying oils as high | 
in ester percentage as possible. | 
In any case we venture to advise the gentlemen with ‘‘commercial initiative” " e 
try to behave like civilized beings, lest the “settlement” to be presented after the 
conclusion of peace become a little more than they bargained for.” 
Several years ago F. Elze') proved the presence of thymol in lavender oil. When 
discussing the publication at the time’) we pointed out that thymol might have 
got into the lavender oil examined by Elze accidentally, and that it could be decided 
by an examination of guaranteed pure material only whether thymol really belonged 
to the list of normal constituents of lavender oil. Meantime we have had an oppor- ~* 
tunity of carrying out such an examination. We had to deal with an oil distilled by 
ourselves from French lavender grown in Miltitz. When cutting the flowers, special 
care was taken to avoid any foreign herb getting mixed with the lavender flowers: 
we thus obtained an absolutely pure lavender distillate, which had the following con- 
stants: diso 0.8912; a) —3°57'; acid v. 1.5; ester v. 87.7 = 30.7 p.c. linalyl acetate, 
soluble in 2.5 vol. and more of 70 p.c. alcohol. For the determination of thymol we 
proceeded in the same way as Elze, by agitating the oil repeatedly with a 3 p.c. 
caustic soda lye, saturating the collected alkaline liquids with carbonic acid, and 
extracting them with ether afterwards. 
After evaporating the ether, Elze obtained a residue which smelled of thymol and, 
after boiling 7m vacuo and placing in ice water, became solid when inoculated with a 
small thymol crystal. In our own oil, of which we dealt with about 10 kilos (roughly 
22 lbs.), we failed to prove even a trace of thymol. It may therefore be assumed 
that thymol does not occur in pure lavender oil, and that the oil examined by Elze 
originated from flowers which had become accidentally mixed with a herb containing 
thymol (thyme herb). 
Oil of Limes. In an article by W. R. Dunlop*) on limes and lemons as raw 
material for the manufacture of citric acid and essential oils, we find a few particulars 
on the cultivation of limes in the West Indies, regarding which we had reported 
on previous occasions‘). The lime tree grows best on flat or only slightly hilly 
ground, in protected spots, up to an altitude of about 250 m. (about 825 feet) with 
a yearly average rainfall of about 2000 to 4000 mm. (about 80 to 160 inches). In 
the West Indies, where the lime tree grows best, the average temperature is about 
27°-in the shade (about 80° F.). The seedlings are mostly planted out about 4.6 m. 
apart (about 5 yards), in case of need the soil should be drained; special attention 
is devoted to the planting of wind belts (wind breakers). In the West Indies the 
seedlings are usually supplied by the local Agricultural Departments, of late, however, 
a few estates have started raising their own seedlings. As regards manuring, hardly 
1) Chem. Ztg. 84 (1910), 1029. — 2) Report April 1911, 78. — *%) Bull. Imp. Inst. 18 (1915), 66. — 
4) Comp. Report April 1918, 73; October 1918, 70; April 1914, 68. 
