— 43 — 
the plants which have been injured by frost, but these are exceptions: 
the average result is good. The plants in the Gard, however, appear 
to have suffered more from frosts in the spring, but there also the total 
yield is said to exceed that of last year. 
At the same time, the price paid for the plants for distillation- 
purposes was 7 to 8 francs per lOO kilos, against 5 francs formerly. 
The yield of oil this year was good. 
In view of these facts the prices of fine lavender oils would no 
doubt have fallen considerably, if at the beginning of the season the 
stocks of oil from the previous harvest had not been totally exhausted. 
In consequence of the general and partly very urgent demand caused 
thereby, the new oil was immediately bought up at high prices, and 
all our attempts to induce the producers to become more accommo- 
dating only proved futile. 
In face of this peculiar state of affairs, and of the constantly grow- 
ing consumption of lavender oil, it will be necessary also this season 
to reckon upon high quotations. 
We purchase this article first-hand at the principal markets; our 
buyer is trained in the proper examination of the samples which are 
submitted to him. 
The parcels bought by us up to the present are throughout of 
exceptionally fine quality, containing ester up to 45,3 per cent., and 
that without any artificial increase of the ester-content, an occurrence 
for which we were constantly watching, in view of previous experience. 
In our Report of April 1902, p. 46, we mentioned a case of 
adulterated lavender oil with benzoic acid for the purpose of artificially 
raising the ester-content; this case has led to an action for damages, 
which after several trials has had this result, that the person who com- 
mitted this adulteration has offered, of his own accord, to bear the 
heavy expense and loss of material resulting from the working up of 
the oil. This person has now probably lost the taste for a second 
attempt to palm off his goods on us. 
In our last April Report ^) we published the result of our work on 
French oil of lavender. We can now amplify this somewhat. The 
amyl alcohol isolated from the first runnings of the oil by means of 
phthalic acid anhydride, formed with carbanil a phenyl urethane of 
the melting point 39° to 41°. Elementary analysis of the latter gave 
the following figures: 
Oji35^ g the substance yielded 0,0974 g HgO and 0,3444 g COg. 
Found: Calculated for CigH^^OgN: 
C = 69,27 per cent. 69,56 per cent. 
H = 7,98 „ „ 8,21 „ 
1) Report April 1903, 45. 
