TO 'ENTRAP A PERFUME.'

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XXIV, 12 June 1897, Page 760

TO 'ENTRAP A PERFUME.'

Lears a lesson for the season from the south of France. In the flower season at Cannes plates of glass are thinlycovered with clarified inodorous fat; upon or under this fat the flowers are placed, and the power this substance has to absorb and retain perfumes is astonishing. On these sheets of glass the most delicate odours are thus fixed almost as securely as on the collodion prepared plates, the most delicate pictures are retained. In this way the jessamine, the violet, the tuberose, and orange perfumes travel across'France and arrive in England as pure as the day they were given forth from the flowers themselves. The emancipation of the odour from its imprisonment is very simple. The fat, cut into small cubes, is placed in spirits of wine, and the delicate essence immediately deserts the coarse tat for the more spiritual solvent. M. Piesse, in his interesting work on perfumery, says that * while cultivators of gardens spend thousands for the gratification of the eye, they altogether neglect the nose. Why should we not grow flowers fortheir odours as well as for their colours ?’ And, we may add, the ladies may utilize some of our own waste garden perfumes very easily and with pecuniary advantage to themselves. Heliotrope, the lily of the valley, honeysuckle, myrtle, clove, pink, and wallflower perfumes, such as we get in the shops, are made-up odours, cunningly contrived from other flowers. Yet they may be made pure with a little trouble. ‘ I want heliotrope pomade,’ says M. Piesse, in despair. 5 1 would buy any amount that I could get.’ And the way to get it is very simple. If there is a gluepot in the house, and it happens to be clean, fill it with clarified fat, set it near the hothouse fire, or any other fire, just to make the fat liquid, and throw in as many heliotrope flowers as possible ; let them remain for twenty-four hours, strain off the fat and add fresh ones; repeat th's process for a week and the fat will have become a pomade a la helio trope. The same process may be gone through with all the other flowers mentioned. A lady may in this manner make her own perfume, and we may add, in the words of M. Piesse, ‘ one that she cannot obtain for love or money at the perfumer’s.’