The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants

VITIVERT, or Kus-Kus, is the rhizome of an Indian grass. In the neighborhood of Calcutta, and in the city, this material has an extensive use by being manufactured into awnings, blinds, and sun-shades, called Tatty. During the hot seasons an attendant sprinkles water over them; this operation cools the apartment by the evaporation of the water, and, at the same time, perfumes the atmosphere, in a very agreeable manner, with the odoriferous principle of the vitivert. It has a smell between the aromatic or spicy odor and that of flowers--if such a distinction can be admitted. We classify it with orris root, not that it has any odor resembling it, but because it has a like effect in use in perfumery, and because it is prepared as a tincture for obtaining its odor. About four pounds of the dried vitivert, as it is imported, being cut small and set to steep in a gallon of rectified spirits for a fortnight, produces the ESSENCE OF VITIVERT of the shops. In this state it is rarely used as a perfume, although it is occasionally asked for by those who, perhaps, have learnt to admire its odor by their previous residence in "the Eastern clime." The extract, essence, or tincture of vitivert, enters into the composition of several of the much-admired and old bouquets manufactured in the early days of perfumery in England, such as "Mousselaine des Indies," for which preparation M. Delcroix, in the zenith of his fame, created quite a furor in the fashionable world.