vender, scenting
drawers in which linen is kept; this is the best way to use it, as
this odor, like musk, is most agreeable when very
dilute.--("Gardeners' Chronicle.")

The root of some parasitical plant, under the name of kritz, is used
in Cashmere to wash the celebrated shawls, soap is used only for white
shawls.

From the flowers of the Bengal quince (_AEgle marmemolos_) a fragant
liquid is distilled in Ceylon known as marmala water, which is much
used as a perfume for sprinkling by the natives.

Jasmine oil is distilled from _Jasminum sambac_ and _grandiflora_.

SAPONACEOUS PLANTS.--Many plants furnish abroad useful substitutes for
common soap. The aril which surrounds the seed and the roots of
_Sapindus Saponaria_, an evergreen tree, I have seen used as soap in
South America and the West Indies under the name of soap berries. The
seed vessels are very acrid, they lather freely in water and will
cleanse more linen than thirty times their weight of soap, but in time
they corrode or burn the linen. Humboldt says that proceeding along
the river Carenicuar, in the Gulf of Cariaco, he saw the Indian women
washing their linen with the fruit of this tree, there called the
parapara. Some other species of _Sapindus_ and of _Gypsophila_ have
similar properties. The bruised leaves and roots of _Saponaria
officinalis_, a British species, form a lather which much resembles
that of soap, and is similarly efficacious in removing grease spots.
The bark of many species of Quillaia, as _Q. saponaria_, when beaten
between stones, makes a lather which can be used as a substitute for
soap, in washing woollens and silk clothes, and to clean colors in
dyeing, in Chili and Brazil, but it turns linen yellow. The fruit of
_Bromelia Pinguin_ is equally useful. A vegetable soap was prepared
some years ago in Jamaica from the leaves of the American aloe (_Agave
Americana_) which was found as detergent as Castile soap for washing
linen, and had the superior quality of mixing and forming a lather
with salt water as well as fresh. Dr. Robinson, the naturalist, thus
describes the process he adopted in 1767, and for which he was awarded
a grant by the House of Assembly:--"The lower leaves of the Curaca or
Coratoe (_Agave karatu_) were passed between heavy rollers to express
the juice, which, after being strained through a hair cloth, was
merely inspissated by the action of the sun, or a slow fire, and cast
into balls or casks. The only precaut