F. Lichens in Perfumery
a. Lichens as Perfumes. There are a few lichens that find a place in Gerard’s[1315] Herball and that are praised by him as being serviceable to man. Among others he writes of a “Moss that partakes of the bark of which it is engendered. It is to be used in compositions which serve for sweet perfumes and that take away wearisomeness.” At a much later date we find Amoreux[1316] recording the fact that Lichen (Evernia) prunastri, known as “Mousse de Chêne,” was used as a perfume plant.
Though lichens are not parasitic, the idea that they owed something of their quality to the substratum was firmly held by the old herbalists. It appears again and again in the descriptions of medicinal lichens, and still persists in this matter of perfumes. Hue[1317] states in some notes to a larger work, that French perfumers extract an excellent perfume from Evernia prunastri ([Fig. 59]) known as “Mousse des Chênes” (Oak moss), and it appears that the plants which grow on oak contain more perfume than those which live on other trees. The collectors often gather along with Evernia prunastri other species such as Ramalina calicaris and R. fraxinea, but these possess little if any scent. A still finer perfume is extracted[1318] from Lobaria pulmonaria called “moss from the base of the oaks,” but as it is a rarer lichen than Evernia it is less used. Most of the Stictaceae, to which family Lobaria belongs, have a somewhat disagreeable odour, but this one forms a remarkable exception, which can be tested by macerating the thallus and soaking it in spirit: it will then be found to exhale a pleasant and very persistent scent. These lichens are not, however, used alone; they are combined with other substances in the composition of much appreciated perfumes. The thallus possesses also the power of retaining scent and, for this reason, lichens frequently form an ingredient of potpourri.
b. Lichens as Hair-powder. In the days of white-powdered hair, use was occasionally made of Ramalina calicaris which was ground down and substituted for the starch that was more commonly employed.
In older books on lichenology constant reference is made to a hair-powder called “Pulvis Cyprius” or “Cyprus powder” and very celebrated in the seventeenth century. It was believed to beautify and cleanse the hair by removing scurf, etc. Evernia prunastri was one of the chief ingredients of the powder, but it might be replaced by Physcia ciliaris or by Usnea. The virtue of the lichens lay in their capacity to absorb and retain perfume. The powder was for long manufactured at Montpellier and was a valuable monopoly. Its composition was kept secret, but Bauhin[1319] (J.) published an account of the ingredients and how to mix them. Under the title “Pulvis Cyprius Pretiosius” a more detailed recipe of the famous powder was given by Zwelser[1320], a Palatine medical doctor. The lichen employed in his preparation, as in Bauhin’s, is Usnea, but that may include both Evernia and Physcia as they are all tree plants. He gives elaborate directions as to the cleaning of the lichen from all impurities—it is to be beaten with a stick, washed repeatedly with limpid and pure water, placed in a linen cloth and dried in the sun till it is completely bleached and deprived of all odour and taste.
When well dried it was placed in a basket in alternate layers with freshly gathered, entire flowers of roses and jasmine (or flowers of orange and citrus when possible). The whole was compressed by a heavy weight, and each day the flowers were renewed until the “Usnea” was thoroughly impregnated with a very fragrant odour. It was then reduced to a fine powder and ready for other ingredients. To each pound should be added:
1-1/2 oz. powdered root of white Iris.
1-1/2 oz. of Cyperus (a sedge).
1 scruple or half drachm of musk reduced to a pulp with fragrant spirit of roses.
1/2 drachm of ambergris dissolved in a scruple of genuine oil of roses, or oil of jasmine or oranges as may be preferred.
Zwelser adds:
“This most fragrant royal powder when sprinkled on the head invigorates by its remarkably pleasant odour; by its astringency and dryness it removes all impurities, and, since it operates with no viscosity nor sticks firmly either to skin or hair, it is easily removed from the hair of the head.”