FRAGRANCE IN THE NATURAL ORDERS 209 as for instance, in the case of the ploughman's spikenard, there are tropical versions. For instance Inula Conzya the East Indian 'cinnamon-root,' the blossoms of which diffuse a strong amber spicy fragrance over a very wide area. ETYMOLOGY An etymological digression is appropriate here which first considers the prefix fiori-, for we find that a fiorilegia is an anthology of choice excerpts. In Greek antho/logos literally means a gathering of selected flowers for weaving into a garland Floriculture is now a well-developed art, but there is also the science of Floristics, namely, the study of Floras. OSMICAL OPINION I would also mention that the osmical sentiments which I express upon floral fragrance are personal opinions, based in the first instance upon a consensus of impressions as indicated in the literature cited, private overseas correspondence, and secondly, where possible, conversations with nursery gardeners, florists, and flower enthusiasts, supp'emented by visits to Kew, the R.H.S. Gardens at Wisley, and Flower Shows. BOOKS ON GARDENS Before considering the books available which deal to some degree with the special subject of floral and folial fragrance, I would briefly remark that the garden encyclopaedias, hand-books, and manuals are chiefly concerned with the horticultural aspects, and although these contain listings of alpine plants, stock for the herbaceous borders, colour schemes and so on, it is rare to come across any suggestions for a fragrant corner, but there is also a contiguous literature remarkable for its magnitude and diversity. There is also a wealth of first-hand information on blossom odours avail- able in such accounts as the Plant Hunters in the Andes, Plant Hunters in China, and the pioneer work of such Collectors as G. Forest, R. Farrar and F. Kingdon-Ward .... for example, Mrs. Kingdon-Ward in her book My Hill so Strong, (1952), relates of a Rhododendron species, R. bullatum growing all over the top of a cottage-sized boulder that"... there was one easy way to the top... we sat down and drank deeply of the heady scent of nutmeg that poured from the pink and white blossoms." The accounts of the travels of Bates, Darwin and Wallace in South America also afford much first-hand information on blossom and foliage odours. There also exists a fiorilegia of considerable magnitude, covering aspects of botanical, historical or anecdotal interest, as is evinced in the many volumes of Sir John Frazer's 'Golden Bough,' in which the influence of certain plants and trees is seen in comparative religion, mythology and

210 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS folk-lore. An interesting study has also been made by some half a dozen authors upon the 'Plants of the Bible,' and the 'Flowers of Palestine,' while Miss E. S. Rohde is one of several authors who have gathered together all the Shakespearean references to herbs and wild flowers. A lot of the ground- work of these erudite studies is to be found in another guise among the other Floras, for we find many volumes devoted to Flora A romatica, domestica, historica, medica, rustica, sacra and symbolica. There is also to be found an extensive miniature library bearing such titles as In Nature's Garden, Enchantment of Gardens, ca. 1910-1920, and therefore very unlikely to be reprinted, but all these are invaluable for the bibliographies and chronological tables of authors, thus compacting data one may search for elsewhere in vain, and from a careful perusal of this Miscellania may be obtained many useful hints, for instance, about Wild Roses,... "sweet as the breath of heaven, or a Wild Rose of repulsive odour ß.. flowers sweet at night and scentless in the day flowers of evil odour at one hour and fragrant at another." NATURE BOOKS The writings of W. H. Hudson, Richard Jefferies and Gilbert White teem with descriptions of wild flower fragrance and impressions of rural and riparian odours, whilst there is much to be gleaned from the modern nature essays of R. Gibbings, S. L. Bensusan, D. J. Watkins-Pitchford's Idle Countryman series, J. Wentworth-Day's Marshland (and other) Adventures, The Shropshire Hills, of H. W. Temperley, A. W. Boyd's Country Diary of a Cheshire man, and the Fresh Woods and Pastures New, of I. Niall, while the Pot Pourrifrom a Surrey Garden series by Mrs. Earle, and the many contribu- tions of Miss G. Jekyll offer much first-hand information upon the fragrance of many hot-house plants. NOMENCLATURE Natural Fragrance has its own vocabulary--this must be compressed into merely a few represev•tative examples, for instance, the various gram- matical presentations of aromatica, odorata, fragrans and the sweet dulcis and suaveolens. Less obvious from the Greek with its key noun anthos, meaning a flower, we find the genera Os/manthus and Di/osma, literally the 'scented-flower,' and 'divine-perfume,' respectively. There are also the malodoras, nauseosus, foetidissima, caprosma and graveolens. There are glossaries of upwards of 25,000 terms descriptive of the anatomy, morphology and physiological processes concerned with living plant tissue, but there are also at least a dozen texts which cover the history and principles of plant naming, and for the purpose of this study it is impera- tive to have constant access to a source detailing the scientific as well as the