Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1895. 
The  Violet  Perfume. 
347 
The  cultivation  of  the  iris  is  not  attended  with  difficulties  as  it 
seems  to  thrive  either  in  a  calcareous  or  damp  soil.  The  rhizome 
is  collected  in  the  early  spring.  The  flags  being  cut  back  to  within 
a  few  inches  of  the  rhizome,  and  another  cut  is  made  across  the  first 
tuberous  formation.  This  portion  then  containing  the  growing 
young  flag  is  replaced  in  the  ground,  which  continues  to  grow,  pro- 
ducing another  rhizome,  while  the  remainder  of  the  rhizome  is 
trimmed  of  its  rind,  cleaned  and  dried  in  the  sun.  The  fresh  rhi- 
zome— so  called  "  Orris  Root  " — has  an  earthy  smell,  differing  but 
little  from  the  iris  of  our  swamps.  The  peculiar  aroma  is  developed 
during  a  process  of  drying.  The  maximum  development  is  said 
not  to  be  attained  for  at  least  two  years,  and  that  it  even  intensifies 
after  that  time.  The  odor  of  the  iris  rhizome  is  similar  then  to 
that  of  violets. 
■  The  iris  rhizome  was  distilled  with  steam  by  F.  A.  Fliickiger 
(1876),  and  he  obtained  in  the  distillate  "  butter  of  Iris,"  possessing 
the  characteristic  odor  of  Orris  and  consisting  principally  of  myristic 
acid  and  a  minute  quantity  of  an  essential  oil,  to  which  he  claimed 
the  entire  fragrance  of  the  root  is  due.  He  estimated  the  propor- 
tion of  oil  in  the  root  to  be  not  more  than  I  part  in  10,000. 
In  extracting  the  oil  from  the  rhizome  now  they  frequently  add 
some  dilute  sulphuric  acid  with  the  water,  the  idea  being  to  convert 
the  starch  into  soluble  dextrose,  the  oil  then  being  readily  caught 
up  by  the  steam  and  carried  into  the  distillate.  The  yield  of  oil  by 
this  method  is  greater,  but  the  aroma  is  not  considered  to  be  so 
delicate.  Ferd.  Tiemann  and  Paul  Kriiger  have,  during  the  past 
ten  years  endeavored  to  isolate  the  chemical  principle  to  which  the 
odor  of  the  fresh  flowers  of  the  violet  and  iris  rhizome  is  due.  It 
has  been  found  impossible  as  yet  to  obtain  sufficient  of  the  odori- 
ferous material  from  violet  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  it  is  identical 
with  that  contained  in  the  iris  rhizome.  They  have,  however,  had 
considerable  success  with  the  iris  and  have  published  their  investi- 
gations thus  far  in  the  Ber.  d.  Chem.  Ges.,  xxvi.,  3,  p.  2675. 
According  to  these  authors,  the  odoriferous  principle  of  the  iris 
rhizome  cannot  be  obtained  directly  by  distillation  with  steam. 
This  is  due  evidently  to  the  large  amount  of  starch  contained 
therein,  which,  in  some  way,  seems  to  hold  the  volatile  substances 
They,  therefore,  extract  the  root  repeatedly  with  ether  and  then  dis- 
til the  ethereal  extract  with  steam.    As  a  result  of  the  distillation 
