ESSENTIAL OIL IN FODDER CROPS 23 
knee deep, Rosemary and Marjoram root into every 
cleft, and a thousand other herbs grow rank along the 
mountain side and fill the dewy air of morn and eve 
with thymy fragrances blown out of each hollow and 
ravine. From Majori to Salerno and Pestum in spring 
flowers are spread out like Persian or Arabic prayer- 
carpets in the genial sunshine, for sun heat and light is 
the alchemist that distils perfume and flavour for 
blossoms and fruitage alike. 
The London Spice and Drug Market is a most im- 
portant institution in the City, where all sorts of scented 
or flavouring products are sold by the pound or hundred- 
weight and often by the ton. 
INSECTS AND BACTERIA 
There is a scent-producing organ in the abdomen of the 
worker of the honey-bee (Apis mellifica). It was de- 
scribed by Nassanoff in 1883. The peculiar odour 
emitted may possibly be of use for signalling purposes. 
Even the bacteria are in some, even if not in many 
_ cases, scent or aroma and flavour producers. In beer 
and wine, butter and tobacco, they set up fermentations 
that develop fragrance and flavour alike. Pseudomonas 
fragarie, a bacterium isolated from forage beet and 
cultivated on various media, yields a very pronounced 
ripe strawberry-like odour. That there are luminous or 
so-called phosphorescent bacteria is also well known. 
EssENTIAL OIL IN FopDER Crops 
When hay is cut, the odour produced is due to a 
volatile oil. This material is lost when the hay is 
overcured or exposed to leaching rains. The odours of 
all fodder crops are imparted by characteristic essential 
oils. In the preparation of hay and fodder crops, it 
should be the aim to prevent, as far as possible, any 
