336 
ON  OTTO  OF  ROSE. 
London  from  Turkey,  and  is  then  known  in  the  London  drug 
trade  as  Turkish  Essence  of  Geranium, 
Let  us  consider  what  is  its  origin.  The  Catalogue  of  the 
Turkish  Section  of  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1851  states  that  it 
is  brought  from  Mecca.  A  sample  presented  by  M.  Delia 
Sudda  to  the  Ecole  de  Pharmacie  of  Paris,  has  likewise  this 
origin  assigned  to  it.*  I  am,  moreover,  informed  by  my  friend 
Mr.  Maltass,  that  the  Idris  Oil  found  at  Smyrna  is  all  brought 
by  the  pilgrims  arriving  from  Mecca.  M.  Guibourt  has  stated 
to  me  upon  the  authority  of  a  gentleman  at  Constantinople,  that 
the  dealers  there  affirm  that  the  oil  in  question  comes  from 
India  by  way  of  Egypt. 
Although  it  is  thus  tolerably  evident  that  the  essential  oil 
called  the  Idris  Yaghi  is  imported  from  Mecca,  or  perhaps  from 
Jeddah,  the  port  of  Mecca,  all  that  we  know  of  these  places 
tends  to  show  that  it  is  not  produced  there.  Mecca  appears  to 
have  no  manufactures,  but  to  be  entirely  supported  by  the  pil- 
grims who  flock  to  its  holy  places  :  besides  which  the  nature  of 
the  country  and  the  climate,  utterly  forbid  the  idea  of  a  green 
herb  being  produced  in  quantity  for  distillation. 
Jeddah  is  also  without  manufactures,  but  it  has  a  large  trade 
with  various  ports  on  the  Red  Sea,  as  well  as  with  India. 
Burckhardt,  who  visited  it  in  1814,  has  left  a  minute  description 
of  the  various  trades  carried  on,  and  even  the  number  of  persons 
engaged  in  each  ;  and  it  is  perfectly  clear  from  his  account, 
that  even  for  the  most  trifling  manufactured  articles,  Jeddah  is 
dependent  either  on  Egypt  or  India,  f 
From  Bombay,  on  the  other  hand,  an  essential  oil  is  exported, 
which  is  undistinguishable  from  the  Turkish  Essence  of  Gera- 
nium.J  This  liquid  is  known  in  India  as  Roshe  or  Rose  Oil,  and 
in  the  London  markets  as  Oil  of  Ginger- Grass  or  of  Geranium. 
It  is  the  produce  of  the  more  northern  parts  of  India,  where  it 
is  obtained  by  the  distillation  of  certain  grasses  of  the  genus 
Andropogon.  but  the  precise  species  of  which  I  am  at  present 
unable  from  personal  knowledge  to  name. 
From  the  Report  on  the  External  Commerce  of  Bombay,  for 
the  year  1856-7,  a  valuable  mass  of  statistics,  compiled  by  R. 
*  Journal  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chimie.    Tome  xxix.  p.  310. 
f  Travels  in  Arabia,  Lond.  1829,  4to,  p.  41,  &c. 
%  I  must,  however,  admit  that  in  English  trade-lists  the  two  are  separately 
enumerated,  the  Turkish  fetching  a  higher  price. 
