A paper on this subject was read before the Chemists' Assistants' Association on March 8, by Mr. F.W. Warrick, and was listened to with much interest.

Mr. Warrick first apologized for presenting a paper on such a frivolous subject to men who had shown themselves such ardent advocates of the higher pharmacy, of the "ologies" in preference to the groceries, perfumeries, and other "eries." But if perfumery could not hope to take an elevated position in the materiae pharmaceuticae, it might be accorded a place as an adjunct, if only on the plea that those also serve who only stand and wait.

Mr. Warrick mentioned that his family had been connected with this industry for many years, and that for many of the facts in the paper he was indebted to a cousin who had had twenty years' practical experience in the South, and who was present that evening.

Grasse

The town of Grasse is perhaps more celebrated than any other for its connection with the perfume industry in a province which is itself well known to be its home.

This, the department of the Alpes Maritimes, forms the southeastern corner of France. Its most prominent geographical features are an elevated mountain range, a portion of the Alps, and a long seaboard washed by the Mediterranean - whence the name Alpes Maritimes.

The calcareous hills round Grasse and to the north of Nice are more or less bare, though they were at one time well wooded; the reafforesting of these parts has, however, made of late great progress. Nearer the sea vegetation is less rare, and there many a promontory excites the just admiration of the visitor by its growth of olives, orange and lemon trees, and odoriferous shrubs. Who that has ever sojourned in this province can wonder that Goethe's Mignon should have ardently desired a return to these sunny regions?

Visitors on these shores on the first day of this year found Goethe's lines more poetical than true -

Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows,
And the groves are of laurel, and myrtle, and rose;

for they gathered round their fires and coughed and groaned in chorus, and entertained each other with accounts of their ailments. But this was exceptional, and the climate of the Alpes Maritimes is on the whole as near perfection as anything earthly can be. This, however, is not due to its latitude, but rather to its happy protection from the north by its Alps and to its being bathed on the south by the warm Mediterranean and the soft breezes of an eastern wind (which evidently there bears a different reputation to that which it does with us). The mistral, or cold breeze from the hills, is indeed the only climatic enemy, if we except an occasional earthquake.

The town of Grasse itself is situated in the southern portion of the department, and enjoys its fair share of the advantages this situation affords. It is about ten miles from Cannes (Lord Brougham's creation), and, as the crow flies, twenty-five miles from Nice, though about forty miles by rail, for the line runs down to Cannes and thence along the shore to Nice.

Built on the side of a hill some 1,000 feet above the level of the sea, the town commands magnificent views over the surrounding country, especially in the direction of the sea, which is gloriously visible. An abundant stream, the Foux, issuing from the rocks just above the town, is the all productive genius of the place; it feeds a hundred fountains and as many factories, and then gives life to the neighboring fields and gardens.

The population of Grasse is about 12,000, and the flora of its environs represents almost all the botany of Europe. Among the splendid pasture lands, 7,000 feet above the sea, are fields of lavender, thyme, etc. From 7,000 to 6,000 feet there are forests of pine and other gymnosperms. From 6,000 to 4,000 feet firs and the beech are the most prominent trees. Between 4,000 and 2,000 feet we find our familiar friends the oak, the chestnut, cereals, maize, potatoes. Below this is the Mediterranean region. Here orange, lemon, fig, and olive trees, the vine, mulberry, etc., flourish in the open as well as any number of exotics, palms, aloes, cactuses, castor oil plants, etc. It is in this region that nature with lavish hand bestows her flowers, which, unlike their compeers in other lands, are not born to waste their fragrance on the desert air or to die "like the bubble on the fountain," but rather (to paraphrase George Eliot's lofty words) to die, and live again in fats and oils, made nobler by their presence.

The following are the plants put under contribution by the perfume factories of the district, viz., the orange tree, bitter and sweet, the lemon, eucalyptus, myrtle, bay laurel, cherry laurel, elder; the labiates; lavender, spike, thyme, etc.; the umbelliferous fennel and parsley, the composite wormwood and tarragon, and, more delicate than these, the rose, geranium, cassie, jasmin, jonquil, mignonette, and violet.