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oils of rose, citronella, geranium, linaloe, lemongrass, lavender, neroli, pal- 
marosa, ylang ylang, and others; but it has this disadvantage that in the 
pure state it readily oxidises when exposed to the atmosphere, — on 
the other hand, when mixed with other essential oils it keeps well. 
Heliotropin. Since our last Report the fall in the price of this 
article has been arrested. The manufacturers have reached the extreme 
limits of their art, and the perfumer can look with complacency on 
the end of this competition. 
The prevailing idea that the heliotropin of previous times, pro- 
duced from the piperidine of pepper, is in point of quality superior 
to the one now obtained from safrol, is, in our opinion, due to pre- 
judice. The earlier product was doubtless not better than the present 
one; but, in order to meet all wishes, we carry since some time an 
extra quality, which has been submitted to a special purification- 
process. This process is a matter of considerable expense, and con- 
sequently necessitates an important addition to the price. 
Several complaints rejating to the yellow discolouration which has 
occurred with solutions of heliotropin, have induced us to make some 
experiments in this direction. We submitted io^/q w^ater- white alcoholic 
solutions of heliotropin, in bottles of equal capacity which were filled 
to different heights and were partly left open, to the action of dif- 
fused sunlight, and have thereby obtained the following results. Bottles 
filled right up to the neck and closed, after standing for a period 
of five months, showed some yellow discolouration hardly worth 
mentioning. In the other bottles, the colouration increased with the 
volume of air enclosed, and passed over into brown where the bottles 
had been left open. In the latter, heliotropin crystals had separated 
out on the bottom and a brown resinous crust in the neck. In 
bottles which have only become slightly discoloured, the colouration 
increases if they are now and then opened and again closed up. It 
therefore appears that, apart from the light, the air also exerts a 
pronounced influence on the keeping qualities of heliotropin-solutions, 
and it should for this reason be avoided to expose such solutions to 
the light in incompletely filled bottles. Crystallised, and especially 
melted heliotropin, is in the dry state subject to the same changes. 
Even the purest product becomes yellow or brown through the in- 
fluence of light. This can be observed when a glass -jar filled with 
heliotropin crystals is placed near a window. The side placed towards 
the window will in a short time be found to have changed in the 
manner indicated. This is an occurrence which can only be prevented 
by keeping the article in a cool, dark place. 
Hyacinth. Our hyacinth ''Schimmel & Co." occupies without 
contradiction a favoured place among the preparations which are found 
