This mixture is exceedingly refreshing, and is one of the most elegant perfumes that is made. Being white, it does not stain the handkerchief. It is best when sold fresh made, as by age the citrine oils oxidize, and the perfume acquires an ethereal odor, and then customers say "it is sour." The vervaine thus prepared enters into the composition of a great many of the favorite bouquets that are sold under the title "Court Bouquet," and others which are mixtures of violet, rose, and jasmine, with verbena or vervaine in different proportions. In these preparations, as also in Eau de Portugal, and in fact where any of the citrine ottos are used, a much finer product is obtained by using grape spirit or brandy in preference to the English corn spirit as a solvent for them. Nor do they deteriorate so quickly in French spirit as in English. Whether this be due to the oil of wine (oeanthic ether) or not we cannot say, but think it is so. VIOLET.-- "The forward violet thus did I chide: Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, If not from my love's breath?" The perfume exhaled by the _Viola odorata_ is so universally admired, that to speak in its favor would be more than superfluous. The demand for the "essence of violets" is far greater than the manufacturing perfumers are at present able to supply, and as a consequence, it is difficult to procure the genuine article through the ordinary sources of trade. Real violet is, however, sold by many of the retail perfumers of the West End of London, but at a price that prohibits its use except by the affluent or extravagant votaries of fashion. The violet farms from whence the flowers are procured to make this perfume are very extensive at Nice and Grasse, also in the neighborhood of Florence. The true smelling principle or otto of violets has never yet been isolated: a very concentrated solution in alcohol impresses the olfactory nerve with the idea of the presence of hydrocyanic acid, which is probably a true impression. Burnett says that the plant _Viola tricolor_ (heart's ease), when bruised, smells like peach kernels, and doubtless, therefore, contains prussic acid. The flowers of the heart's ease are scentless, but the plant evidently contains a principle which in other species of the Viola, is eliminated as the "sweet that smells" so beautifully alluded to by Shakspeare. For commercial purposes, the odor of the violet is procured in combination with spirit, oil, or suet, precisely according to the methods previously described for obtaining the aroma of some other flowers before mentioned, such as those for cassie, jasmine, orange-flower, namely, by maceration, or by _enfleurage_, the former method being principally adopted, followed by, when "essence" is required, digesting the pomade in rectified alcohol.