THE GERANIUM FAMILY IN PERFUMERY By E. S. MAURER, F.L.S., M.R.I.* A detailed examination o1' the members o1' the Geranium •mily, the classification o! their odours and the derived essential oils with uses and applications in perhunery. THE GERANIUM is one of those flowers of which the naming of the garden versions is somewhat confused, for what most people commonly call a geranium is not the geranium of the botanist. The familiar, showy, scarlet- flowered plants so widely used for bedding-out purposes are really pelar- goniums, another branch of the same family. The Geraniacese is an extensive family of herbaceous plants and shrubs originally introduced to this country from South Africa about 1675 and now acclimatised to the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It comprises some twenty genera and upwards of 750 species. Apart from the flowers it is the foliage which is of particular interest, for that of some species exhibits a pleasantly strong, aromatic resinous scent or a balsamic- citron nuance. In a few instances, however, somewhat nauseating odours are to be found. Furthermore, many of the genera have remarkable astrin- gent properties, and the tuberous roots of some species are either edible or used medicinally--the term "alum root" for the dried rhizome of Geranium maculatum providing a case in point. The true cultivated geraniums are hardy perennials or rock plants having bright crimson, scarlet, red, pink, lilac, mauve, blue or white flowers. Some of them are seldom seen unless in a special collection, and these, together with the many hybrids among the pelargoniums, are the particular interest of the British Geranium Society. There is quite an extensive literature on the subject, the source-book of which would appear to be the five-volume anonymous contribution upon the "Gerania" (London, 1820-1828). Of the prototype, there are some 15 species of geraniums growing wild in Great Britain, some of which are rarely encountered these days, but of the familiar and easily recognisable plants, Geranium Robertianum, the little crimson herb-Robert, G. pratense, the blue meadow crane's-bill, and the pale hlac G. molle, the dove's-foot crane's-bill, are found in most fields and waste places. ETYMOLOGY AND HISTORY In compiling these studies, • the names of the wild flowers form a prelude to the examination of the genera within the N.O. under consideration. It is * Lautier Fils, London.

THE GERANIUM FAMILY IN PERFUMERY instructive to observe how frequently not only in the Latin and Greek substantives but in the homely country names as found in most Em opean languages, the matrix is preserved and perpetuated in a brief description centred upon a fancied resemblance of some part of a plant to an animal. Thus we find such examples as adder's-tongue, colt's-foot, dogwood, fox- glove, hound's-tongue, snake-root, wolf's-bane and many others, while quite a number of avian references are also to be discovered. In this direction we have already seen mention of larkspurs and the ibis association with hibiscus, to which may now be added a botanically interesting trinity, because it is from the Greek, geranos = a crane, that this family derives its generic name, a further contribution being made by the sub-orders, the Erodiums, erodios = a heron, and the Pelargoniurns, palargos = a stork. In miniature, the ripe seeds of these plants bear a superficial resemblance to a crane's head with its long bill. This fancied appearance was noted by Dioscorides (an army surgeon to Roman troops circa A.I). $$), who commented upon this class of what we now term "explosive" fruits, i.e., so great a tension is built up in the ripening capsules on a hot sunny day that they are suddenly ruptured and catapult the seeds to a considerable distance from the. parent planl•wa proclivity which is observed to a remarkable degree in another genus of this family, namely, the Impatiens or Balsams. TI-IE WILD GERANIUMS Attention is first directed to the prototype Geranium Robertianurn, the familiar crimson- or purple-flowered herb Robert of the country roadsides and woodlands. There are several alternative suggestions to account for the chgice of name, probably the most likely being its derivation from Robert, Duke of Normandy, for whom was written the celebrated medieval medical treatise--Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanurn. As I am beginning to find usual, the country names afford an interesting insight into the potentials of the family, for, in this case, the plant is aptly termed "red shanks" because of its very long, thin red stalks and, in autumn, a particularly bright crimson foliage hence some of its other sobriquets, e.g., dragoh's blood and blood-wort. In this direction, it is recorded by the old herbalists that Nature seems to have set a blood-red seal upon several. of her herbs to indicate their virtue of being able to stop bleedings, this and the tutsan {Hypericurn androsaernurn) have long been regarded as the two best remedies afforded by the fields for the rapid control of internal and external h•emorrhages. This russet tinge and trend is still more notable in G. sanguineurn and, as previously mentioned, it is not unduly surprising to find a name such as alum root bestowed upon the purple-flowered G. rnaculaturn, when it is known that the rhizomes contain upwards of 30 per cent of tannic acid, thus prorid-