THE ORRIS-ROOT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 52

THE ORRIS-ROOT

To a speculator } as a. sapper, nothing is sacred ; otherwise we might well be astonished to hear that a corner has been, established in the orris-root industry—of all others. The British ViceConsul at Leghorn dwells in his last report upon a crisis which has arisen in this trade ini Italy. He tells us that the root, which is used as the basis of many perfumes by the manufacturers of England, France, and Germany, is obtainable only around Florence and in the neighbourhood of Verona. Manufacturtherefore, have to' look to two small districts in one particular country for the whole of their supplies of an almost indispensable article. A syndicate, supported by a powerful bank, has recently secured the entire bulk of the Veronese crop and nine-tenths of that of Florence. A small quantity of Florence root still in the growers’ hands is offered at enormous prices. The syndicate itself is holding its stocks, and apparently declines for the present to sell. Representatives of a large perfume manufactory of Grasse recently endeavoured to obtain a small quantity, butt without success, and there are now perhaps not fifty modity that is subject to the most sing-' •is a pretty state of things to com© about, while the world has been too busy with wars and rumours of wars Vo notice how public interests were being betrayed in the matters of violet powder, sachet perfumes, poudre de ria, and a hundred other delicate wares very useful to children and to the fair sex. No orris-root means none of these and other dainty ■necessaries of the toilet and of th© boudoir, or substitutes for them of a more or less fraudulent and unsatisfactory character. Why did we not know before all that this British Vice-Consul tells ua too late, that prudent ladies might have stored up good supplies of the vanishing article, and judicious investors enjoyed their little flutter in orris-root ? In France they report that the French manufacturers appear to bo fairly well stocked, and are suffering no present inconvenience, although the' day will come when they cannot get on without the root, and then they will have to pay heavily for it. Some dealers, however, think that the advance in price is on th© whole for the interest of all concerned, as, had' prices remained at the level of last year, many large growers .would have

given up planting. Yet this is difficult to accept in the- face of the tremendous profits .now and again attaching to the preparation of orris-root. It is a commodity that is subject to the most singular fluctuations in value. A fair average price way fifty pounds per ton. In' 1891 as much .as one hundred and twenty pounds per ton was paid, and in 1898 as little as twenty-six pounds ; now it is going up again by “lea-ps and? -bounds/’ and 1 a holder of orris-root may smile at the woes of Allsops or the vagaries of West. Australians. Heaven only knows what price- that syndicate may eventually ask and -obtain, for its stock of root when the French houses have used up all their surplus, and a whole world, bereft of a daily item of comfort and luxury, asks for orris-root, and asks for it in vain. The syndicate has got it all, and- unless w© shortly discover a, new source of supply, or can stimulate to fresh exertions, the root-growers of

Florence and Verona, they will ■ moke perfumers and their customers pay by tlie nose for the precious article, which must become a* dear as whalebone, or ambergris, or attar of roses, if it does nob pass out of general sight and use altogether. What, then, is this orris-root, which •suddenly has 'become or has been made so strangely rare and so terribly cosily -’ The answer is, it proceeds from the rhizomes or underground stems of three different hut nearly allied varieties of the iris, styled by botanists Germanics, Florentine-, and Pallida. Tlie three “dags,” for such they are, may be seen planted indiscriminately, and growing together in the damp flats round Florence and Verona, and the peasants call them- all by the name of “ghiaggluolo.” You will find them, each and all, mentioned in any good floral catalogue; nay, you may buy, for five shillings and •sixpence a dozen—if of a speculative mind—the very iris which furnishes the best orris-root, the Florentina., or white flower-de-'luce. It has large flowers, pure white, or white faintly tinged with laveitdar. with a delicate fragrance between tire violet’s ,and the tuberose. The German ica has blooms which are purple,' or violet, or dark blue, or white and yellow, and sometimesJ in the Nepsiense sort, even striped with red, yellow and wki.ee. The blossoms of the Pallida- are of a rosy-lilac hue, .and there are the three species which have made their habitual home around the cities of Dante’s Beatrice and of Shakespeare’s Juliet, where they sweeten the summer air, flowering from May to the end of June. Yet Lb is not for their perfume-that the shrewd contadiui cultivates them; indeed, eke Italians are rather insensible to this side of the glory of the garden, and you will hear a Tuscan girl say of the scentless sorts, “F meglio per non puzzare!”—“lt is all the better for having, no reek.” The beautiful plants '.are festered for their roots alone. They produce ykar by year underground shoots, or sterns—-the rhizomes —about- three or four inches long, which grow for five years, .and then dry and decay. These are taken up, their bark peeled off, and their .fibres renewed, after which they are put by to dessicate and ripen. There is no odour about the ugly things in that state, or only an earthy and acrid flavour as or toadstools. But in about two years some subtle inner fermentation transforms the pale, crooked, chalky sticks into the exquisitelyscented fragments which all the world knows, and not the violet in her sweetest moment has finer fra.qra.nce than the well-kept orris-root. By distillation the chemist ©an extract from it the secret of its charm, a- crystalline substance called orris-camphor, or oil of orris, which is, however, seldom or never got in an absolutely pure condition, and in such minute quantities that it would taka tons of the stuff to furnish a •spoonful. Yet the merest touch of it imparts that exquisite aroma, of fresh violate- which causes it to be so prized by perfumers for dentrifrices, face-powders, cosmetics, and the like, arid also to enrich essences and oils. For such purposes it has been employed from time immemorial, as: one of the weapons of Beauty’s armory. The Greek and Roman dames kept it in their toilet-boxes, or carried a nugget of it in their bosoms. Cleopatra and Rhodopis, -Sappho and Horace’s Lydia used and loved it, for it is absurd to think that Verona and Florence have anv natural monopoly of tlie article. Probably all and any of the herbaceous and' nou-bui-bous irises which emit fragrance would supply from their rhizomes as good a quality as the Italian cities send. Let somebody of an enterprising; turn take to the production of orris-root, and break up an odious monopoly. At the worst he will rear and obtain som© lovely flowering plants, for German irises flourish exceedingly in. ordinary soil, and thrive about London. Herbaceous irises will nearly all do well in ordinary garden. soil, especially when protected front

easterly and northerly winds they, delight in well-rotten manure and deep rich earth, and many are very thirsty subjects, and adorn the margins of ponds and streams. At the best, those whocan grow and dry the rhizomes wifi be on© hundred pounds sterling a. ton. in pocket at present prices.—London “Daily Telegraph,” 24th August, 1200. Leptospermum Cliapmanii, the new Crimson-flowered Manuka, is advertised in this paper by Nimmo and Blair, Dunedin. This is a rare and beautiful novelty. A Forfarshire paper, the •“ Arbroath Guide.” contains the following notice respecting a new treatment of fibre, which, if the process proves to be what is claimed for it, should be er considerable service if applied to New Zealand flax: — “Mr Janies Anderson, flax merchant)' Arbroath, has invented a process for the treatment of the fibre known as ramie, which, should his expectations be vrealised, will effect nothing short of a revolution in the manufacture of textile substances. The details of the process cannot, of course, be made public, but it may be stated that in place of decor, floating and degumming; the fibre by means of expensive machinery*. Mr Anderson accomplishes these processes by purely chemical means. Mr Anderson Iras shown samples of the fibre treated by himself to parties interested, and he claims that by his process the material attains a far "higher standard of excellence as a product for manufacture than has yet been attained by the aid of machinery, and that it is fitted to become a formidable rival to flax and jute and even to silk.” Many years ago the late Mr Luke Nat trass, for a- long time librarian of Nelson Public Library, devoted great attention to the degumming of the phormiurii. and produced samples of the fibre so pure and silky in appearance and to the touch as to excel the finest of wellwrought Flemish flax of the best growth, and. indeed, to rival in smoothness and gloss the product of the silkworm. If may be worth while for the Agricultural Department, to make inquiries regarding Mr Anderson’s invention. Rape, Mustard, Thousand-beaded Cabbage and other agricultural seeds of best quality from. Nimmo and Blair, Dunedin.