PERFUME HAMERS

Evening Star, Issue 19349, 8 September 1926, Page 1

PERFUME HAMERS

More than any other blooms fragrant ones find a. way to our hearts, vviietner young or old. 'let fragrance is ddlicult to define, so intangible and immaterial it is. Jt eludes awl escapes i us, and yet it is the quality of flowers by whirli wo host remember them. Their perfume is their genius. Not the least wonder about perfume is Unit it ran ho collected and treasured—that the fragrance of a rose garden may be tottlcd for use in future years. Because of this, periumo making is a great industry, with its famous centres. Perfumes, of course, can be built up iin a laboratory. Their chemical com--1 position is know, and with the help of ilest tubes and crucibles llio scent of I rose or violet or lavender can bo proI dimed. But that, after all, is a dismal I substitute for the alchemy ot a rose igarden or of lavender fields at dawn. I The French are the world’s expert perfumers. The little town of Grasse, tucked away in the Maritime Alps, is the most famous centre ol the industry. I There are gardens everywhere, with ■millions of flowers for the making of scent. The quantities arc, indeed, stupendous. During September it is said , that anything up to a thousand tons of j jasmine, lavender, aspic, and tuberose ■ blossoms are collected and distilled. I The average weight of blossoms gathered | in a single summer is somewhere about 5.000 tons. Several million flowers are required to make a ton. so the total number of flowers may be anything up to 50,000 millions. Those warm, sheltered Alpine slopes are, then, the home of flowers, whose scents are gathered and exported to all parts of the world. Across the borders, in the Italian Riviera, are Italy’s famous Alpine rose farms. Roses apparently love altitude. Possibly it helps fragrance. Certainly some of the most delicate flower perfumes, as well as colors, have their home in the heights. Altitude, soil, and climate have combined to,make a fragrant Eden out of those.rugged mountain slopes.