14 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS there are some half a dozen cultivated varieties, with white, red or purple flowers, the foliage exhibiting a pleasant balsamic-citrus redolence, while Floerkea prosperpinacoides---known as the false mermaid---is a solitary species of a North American genus, having minute white flowers and slightly unpleasant-odoured foliage. Balsamina is a discarded synonym of Impatiens, giving name to the sub-order of the Balsams. These are of East Indian origin, now naturalised in Europe and North America, and are tender herbs, the succulent stems of which are laden with a bland aromatic watery juice. The generic name Impatiens refers to the characteristic already noted among the crane's-bills, namely, the elasticity of the valves of the seed pods, which discharge their contents to a considerable distance when ripe or touched. I. noli-m•-tangere (touch me not) is the only English species which is indigenous to Europe, but they are very numerous in India, some 125 species having been recorded. The wild balsam is almost a rarity in the English countryside, but is an elegant plant some two feet high bearing large flowers of a delicate yellow hue beautifully spotted with orange, while the somewhat larger plants in North America are known as "j ewel-weeds," and from the proclivity men- tioned are listed in the wild flower books of that country as "snap-weeds." The garden manuals list some thirty varieties of hardy and half-hardy annuals and generally feature the double camellia-flowered balsams of the nurseries, but these plants--with their fine spikes of waxy-textured blossoms which may be pink, rose, scarlet, violet, yellow or white---do not, so far as I can ascertain, possess foliage with any pronounced aromatic proclivity. It is therefore to some of the tropical varieties, such as I. cornuta, the red- flowered horned balsam of Ceylon and I. sultani, the scarlet-blossomed Zanzibar balsam-shrub, to which attention may be directed. It is first, however, opportune to take a brief glance at the generic name, as this reveals several hints which aid our understanding of the aromatic- citrous nuance found within the Geraniaceae. Although the Anglican word is obvious in the Latin (balsamum) and the Greek (balsamon), yet the root is to be found in the Hebrew (bosere), which would appear to have from its meaning as the "chief of oils" a rather special significance. Conversely, when the odour balance of this complex is reversed and the emphasis is upon the citrous side, the redolence is then a particularly apt description of "balm," a word which is derived from the Aramaic--bolsminmmeaning a sweet, leafy scent. This folial fragrance is perhaps best typified by the herbaceous perennial common to the Mediterranean, namely, Melissa oy•½inalis (N.O. Labiata•), the lemon-balm, or sweet honey-plant, deriving its name from .the fondness of bees (Greek: mdissa •- a bee) for its flowers. This plant, as well as the Moldavian balm and the variety known as "balm of Gilead" are particularly

THE GERANIUM FAMILY IN PERFUMERY common to country gardens in Southern England, and a slight bruising of the foliage immediately releases a sweet lemon-verbena fragrance. The particular reference to "balm" as anything which heals or soothes pain arises from the query made in Jeremiah, viii, 22: "Is there no balm in Gilead is there no physician there ?..." and although it would appear that balm and balsam are in ordinary parlance interchangeable terms, yet from the perfumery angie we must allocate t o them very special meanings, more particularly as I find in the botanical texts a considerable divergence of opinion. For example, balm of Gilead (or Mecca) may properly be described as the thick syrupy liquid extracted from the sticky, resinous and balsamic-odoured buds of Populus balsamifera, N.O. Salicaceae, while balsam of Mecca {or Roghen) would seem to be more correctly listed under Balsamodendron Gileadense, N.O. Amyridaceae, the Abyssinian myrrh trees, amongst which are found B. mukul, the Bdellium of the Scriptures. Due allowance should, however, be afforded to our understanding of the odour and physical appearance of the familiar balsams of Copaiba, elemi, Peru and tolu, and so on, belonging to the N.O. Leguminosae and originating in South America, as compared with the materia rn•dica of Biblical times, for other authorities consider as the source of the Gileadense balm, trees in- digenous to the Syrian-Grecian archipelago, such members of the N.O. Anacardiaceae as Pistacia lenticus, the lentisk or common mastic tree, and P. terebinthus, the Algerian or Barberry turpentine tree, from which were obtained, by natural or artificially induced exudations, fragrant products of a liquid, balsamic or resinous consistency which underwent certain changes upon ageing and/or exposure to air. This listing may be concluded with mention of Balanites (or Ximenia) Aegyptiaca, N.O. Olacaceae, the Persian zachun-oil tree, and particularly Cedronella tryphylla, N.O. Labiatae, named from the Greek: kedron ---- the cedar, in reference to the fragrant resinous scent of its foliage. This latter plant, also listed as Dracocephalum canariense, dragon's-head balm, is said to have extensive usage among Indian women of to-day, as providing an excellent and fragrant shampoo. BALSAMITA--A TRUE BALSAMIC FRAGRANCE ? Although we may observe within the Gerania ceae instances of the varying proportional mergers of the balmy lemon-verbena nuance with the benzoin- labdanum type of balsamic fragrance and various balsamic-vanilla shadings among the spice trees and myrtle blooms, yet for a long tinhe I have held the opinion that somewhere there should be found a source to yield an un- trammelled "quintessence of balsam," and this I believe to exist in a herb seldom seen these days and difficult to locate in the literature.