OPE.--Either by maceration or enfleurage with clarified
fat, we may obtain this fine odor from the flowers of the _Heliotrope
Peruvianum_ or _H. grandiflorum_. Exquisite as the odor of this plant
is, at present it is not applied to use by the manufacturing perfumer.
This we think rather a singular fact, especially as the perfume is
powerful and the flowers abundant. We should like to hear of some
experiments being tried with this plant for procuring its odor in this
country, and for that purpose now suggest the mode of operation which
would most likely lead to successful results. For a small trial in the
first instance, which can be managed by any person having the run of a
garden, we will say, procure an ordinary glue-pot now in common use,
which melts the material by the boiling of water; it is in fact a
water-bath, in chemical parlance--one capable of holding a pound or more
of melted fat. At the season when the flowers are in bloom, obtain half
a pound of fine mutton suet, melt the suet and strain it through a close
hair-sieve, allow the liquefied fat, as it falls from the sieve, to drop
into cold spring water; this operation granulates and washes the blood
and membrane from it. In order to start with a perfectly inodorous
grease, the melting and granulation process may be repeated three or
four times; finally, remelt the fat and cast it into a pan to free it
from adhering water.

Now put the clarified suet into the macerating pot, and place it in such
a position near the fire of the greenhouse, or elsewhere that will keep
it warm enough to be liquid; into the fat throw as many flowers as you
can, and there let them remain for twenty-four hours; at this time
strain the fat from the spent flowers and add fresh ones; repeat this
operation for a week: we expect at the last straining the fat will have
become very highly perfumed, and when cold may be justly termed _Pomade
a la Heliotrope_.

The cold pomade being chopped up, like suet for a pudding, is now to be
put into a wide-mouthed bottle, and covered with spirits as highly
rectified as can be obtained, and left to digest for a week or more; the
spirit then strained off will be highly perfumed; in reality it will be
_extract of Heliotrope_, a delightful perfume for the handkerchief. The
rationale of the operation is simple enough: the fat body has a strong
affinity or attraction for the odorous body, or essential oil of the
flowers, and it therefore absorbs it by co