They are all imported from South America, Chili, and Mexico, where the trees that produce them are indigenous.

BAY, oil of sweet Bay, also termed essential oil of laurel-berries, is a very fragrant substance, procured by distillation from the berries of the bay laurel.  Though very pleasant, it is not much used.

BERGAMOT.—­This most useful perfume is procured from the Citrus Bergamia, by expression from the peel of the fruit.  It has a soft sweet odor, too well known to need description here.  When new and good it has a greenish-yellow tint, but loses its greenness by age, especially if kept in imperfectly corked bottles.  It then becomes cloudy from the deposit of resinous matter, produced by the contact of the air, and acquires a turpentine smell.

It is best preserved in well-stoppered bottles, kept in a cool cellar, and in the dark; light, especially the direct sunshine, quickly deteriorates its odor.  This observation may be applied, indeed, to all perfumes, except rose, which is not so spoiled.

When bergamot is mixed with other essential oils it greatly adds to their richness, and gives a sweetness to spice oils attainable by no other means, and such compounds are much used in the most highly scented soaps.  Mixed with rectified spirit in the proportions of about four ounces of bergamot to a gallon, it forms what is called “extract of bergamot,” and in this state is used for the handkerchief.  Though well covered with extract of orris and other matters, it is the leading ingredient in Bayley and Blew’s Ess.  Bouquet (see BOUQUETS).

[Illustration:  Styrax Benzoin.]

BENZOIN, also called Benjamin.—­This is a very useful substance to perfumers.  It exudes from the Styrax benzoin by wounding the tree, and drying, becomes a hard gum-resin.  It is principally imported from Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Siam.  The best kind comes from the latter place, and used to be called Amygdaloides, because of its being interspersed with several white spots, which resemble broken almonds.  When heated, these white specks rise as a smoke, which is easily condensed upon paper.  The material thus separated from the benzoin is called flowers of benzoin in commerce, and by chemists is termed benzoic acid.  It has all, or nearly all, the odor of the resin from which it is derived.

The extract, or tincture of benzoin, forms a good basis for a bouquet.[B] Like balsam of Tolu, it gives permanence and body to a perfume made with an essential oil in spirit.

The principal consumption of benzoin is in the manufacture of pastilles (see PASTILLES), and for the preparation of fictitious vanilla pomade (see POMATUMS).

CARAWAY.—­This odoriferous principle is drawn by distillation from the seeds of the Carum carui.  It has a very pleasant smell, quite familiar enough without description.  It is well adapted to perfume soap, for which it is much used in England, though rarely if ever on the continent; when dissolved in spirit it may be used in combination with oil of lavender and bergamot for the manufacture of cheap essences, in a similar way to cloves (see CLOVES).  If caraway seeds are ground, they are well adapted for mixing to form sachet powder (see SACHETS).