THE GERANIUM FAMILY IN PERFUMERY 5 This presents the pleasant nuances of rose, or rose in conjunction with lemon, citronella, eucalyptus, peppermint, pennyroyal, nutmeg, almond, clove, hyacinth a•d balsam conversely, with the butyric element very prominent, we may record some decidedly unpleasant combinations, as we may note from such further epithets bestowed upon herb-Robert as "foxy-geranium" and "stinking Bob," for the foliage when bruised emits a stale, sickly, caproic and skatole•-tainted effluvium, similar to the odour ascribed to badgers, weasels and foxes--a characteristic which is also observed with the foliage of some of the "musky" Erodiums, such pelar- goniums as P. fulgid•m, P. abrotanifolium and also with the deadnettle (Lamium album), the wood-strawberry (Fragaria v•sca) and the weasel-snout ( Galeobdolon luteurn) . THE SCENTED "GERANIUMS" It is also remarkable that the botany texts concerned with Europe and N. America only afford information upon about a dozen species of the indigenous wild geraniums, and with the exception of the feral smell of herb-Robert, none of the remaining varieties exhibit the slightest approach to the geranium odour so familiar to us in our everyday work. It would therefore seem that the scented varieties of our gardens have originated from acclimatisation and cultivation of stock transferred from the native habitat of South Africa, and sometimes exhibiting a prodigious growth (for I observe from Garden Flowers in Colour, by G. A. Stevens, published in 1939 by the Macmillan Company of New York, that: "The well-known bedding geranium of Northern gardens is a shrub in California, climbing up the sides of houses and over fences. Its round, velvety, scented foliage is particularly handsome and immune to insect pests, while its jolly, comfortable-looking flowers are exceedingly brilliant and long lasting . . . there are many different geraniums, and the plants which we commonly grow under this name are really pelargoniums. The true geraniums are mostly wildings, suitable for natural plantings or rock-gardens. None of them is very showy, although most species are acceptably pretty."). From the country of their origin I have a note regarding one of the mountain geraniums, locally known as the Wilde Malfa (P. cucullat•m). This is reported to grow into fair-size bushes about the size of a small hay- rick. To come to the more prosaic plants, however, I note that the earlier garden manuals list some sixty varieties of the "true" geraniums, among which the most important would seem to be the scarlet-flowered G. odoratis- simum, described as the geranium-oil plant. There is also the large-rooted, purple-flowered G. macrorhi•um, the blossoms as well as the leaves of which are described as having a "strong aromatic scent." This plant, within recent years, is perhaps more familiar to perfumers by its Bulgarian name of

6 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Zdravets, the foliage upon distillation yielding a greenish concrete having a. heavy, persistent clary sage-amber type of fragrance. Mention must also be afforded to another and somewhat unique fragrance to be found in the foliage of the scarlet-flowered G. moschatum, the muski- ness of which is very similar to the odour of balsam Peru oil. 'This brief survey, I believe, summarises all that can be usefully recorded regarding the genus Geranium, in so far that the geranium-rose fragrance does not appear in the native wild plants, but only, and then often in a somewhat limited degree, to stocks from warmer climates which have become naturalised to northern latitudes. It is instructive, however, to observe in the catalogues issued by the nursery gardeners that among the herbaceous plants scarcely any mention is afforded to the geraniums, other than perhaps a laconic entry such as: "G. subcaulescens, the true plant from the Grecian mountains. The flower stems radiate from tufts of silvery leaves and bear brilliant crimson flowers with a black centre." Mention of the latter colour prompts a passing note, for it is remarked that G. phoeum, the dusky crane's-bill, is unique for the dingy and almost black hue of the blossoms, a proclivity which is also seen in the deep indigo tint of the flowers of G. sylvestrum, and the bluish black sombreness of the aptly named Pelargonium nigrescens, and is particularly evident in the blackish-purple flowers of P. Zonal var. Meteor, which yields easily a dark violet chromo-glucoside known as pelargonin. Doubtless there is some botanically useful function served by such macabre-shaded blossoms, which from an a•sthetic viewpoint one could perhaps associate with the asphodel, and perhaps it is fortunate that such hues are in a minority when compared with the almost universal preponder- ance of the neutral or creamy white and lightly tinted blossoms over all other colours. THE PELARGONIUMS There are several classes of Pelargoniums, namely: (1) the ordinary scarlet-flowered (2) the zonal, or horse-shoe, also known as the bronze, silver, and gold-leaf tricolours of these there are hundreds of varieties, both single and double flowered--some 230 species and hybrids are recorded as being distributed throughout South Africa and about a hundred in New Zealand. Then there are (3) the ivy-leaved varieties which are mostly climbers while group (4) is the one of greatest interest to perfumers as this contains the lemon and rose-scented kinds remarkable for the fragrance of their leaves, and lastly, (5) the fancy, or large-flowered, also known as the "oak-leaved."