Scented Flora of the World

This comprehensive book looks at scented flowers and leaves of plants from all over the world. Since earliest times scented plants have been amongst man's most prized possessions. He has depended on them for flavouring food and drink, as perfume, for fumigation and to sweeten clothes and bedding. Incense and myrrh were classed with gold as being the most desirable as well as the most expensive things worthy of presentation to the infant Jesus. The work has been prepared to the standards of the Index Kewensis, and is filled with the most interesting facts about the scented flora of the world. For example, one of the world's most pleasing perfumes, vanilla, can be detected when its presence amounts to only 0.000 000 005 of a gram to a litre of air. The scented species and varieties of the world's flora are given in alphabetical order, with methods of scent extraction and culture so that the book is also an encyclopedia for those gardeners who wish to have as much perfume in the garden as possible.