Musk is employed in perfumery mainly to give permanency to other odours. Its fragrance is much affected and even destroyed by some other bodies ; it is considerably altered by camphor and valerian, and is quite destroyed by bitter almonds and powdered ergot.
No serious attempt seems to have been made to domesticate the musk-deer, nor to acclimatize it in other mountain regions. The young taken wild are rather difficult to rear, many of them soon becoming blind, and dying. They eat very little as compared with other ruminants, and feed on various shrubs, grasses, mosses, and roots. Those met with in forest-clad country are much finer than those in open ground.
Nag-kassar.—The flowers of Calysaccion longifolium and Mena ferrea, two nearly allied species, are often confounded, and both are collected and sold in the Indian bazars for their fragrance. The first species is a tree, plentiful in S.-W. India and in China ; its flower-buds, somewhat resembling cloves, are variously known as suriga, surgiha, soohgee-hoo, and nag-hassar, the last being the name under which they have been imported to this country. The second species is much cultivated in Malabar and in Java. The name nag-hassar is sometimes spelt naghas, nagasar, naghesur, or nag hushur. The flowers of both species are largely used in native dyeing in India (see p. 864).
Orange-flowers.—See p. 1425.
Orange-zeste.--See Orange-oil, p. 1425.
Orris-root (FR., Racine d' Iris; GER., Veilchenwurzel).—Orris-root is obtained from three species of Iris: (1) I. germanica, the common "blue flag" of the gardens around London ; abundant near Florence and Lucca, ascending to the chestnut region, and found scattered throughout Central and S. Europe, and in Morocco and N. India. (2) I. pallida, with much more delicate blue flowers, growing wild in stony places in Istria, and plentiful in the olive-region about Lucca and Florence. (3) L florentina, bearing large white flowers, a native of the Macedonian coast and the S.-W. shores of the Black Sea, notably Hersek, in the Gulf of braid, and near Adolia, in Asia Minor ; and occurring naturalized in the vicinity of Lucca and Florenoe. The three species were under cultivation in England at the end of the 16th century. They are all grown for their root in the
country about Florence, being known to the peasants of Tuscany indisoriminately as giaggiolo. The cultivation is of secondary importance, the plants being placed on the edges of terraces, and on waste stony places contiguous to cultivated ground. The rhizomes are harvested in the autumn of every 3rd year. The plants are dug up early in, the autumn, before commencing the next year's growth ; the flags (leaves) are out back, and each root is severed just below the base of the leaves. The bead is then replanted, and grows vigorously. It flourishes best in poor soil, and receives no manure. The rhizomes are spread out to dry and ripen in the open air and sunshine, and are peeled and trimmed. Some pieces are bleached by exposure to the fumes of burning sulphur, but such are not available for perfumery purposes. The prepared pieces are classified by the dealers into scelti and in sorte, and are brought into commerce entire, in fragments (fruritumi), as parings (ruspature), as powder (polvere), or manufactured into "peas." About Verona, the rhizomes of I. germanica (called giglio celeste or selvatico) are collected and brought into Tregnano and Masi, dis tinction being made between the selected long roots (radice dritta), the knotty roots (radice grappa) used for issue-peas, and the fragments (scarto) for perfumery. Some orris-root is exported from Botzen, in S. Tyrol. A sort which has been dried in its outer peel goes by the name of irisa in the Indian bazars, and appears occasionally in the London market ; it appears to be derived from I. germanica [nepalensis], cultivated in Kashmir. A low quality of orris-root, the produce of I. ger manica, is obtained from Morocco. The chief shipments of the root take place from Mogador, Trieste, and Leghorn. The first-named port in 1878 despatched 155 salons, value 4101., to Great Britain, and 27 serous, 65/., to France; total, 364 cwt., 475/. In 1876, the total was 834 cwt. France, in 1870, imported a total of about 50 tons of orris-root. The powdered rout is largely used in satchels, and its extract in bouquets.