ANONACE^E
Islands is known as Ylang-Ylang oil, and is of the finest odour of all the
Cananga oils. The Beunion oil is also known as Ylang-Ylang oil, but is
of much lower value ; and the oil from Java and the neighbourhood is
known as Cananga oil commercially, and is of much lower value than
Ylang-Ylang oil.
The most recent and authentic account of the Ylang-Ylang industry
in the Philippine Islands is contained in a paper by E. F. Bacon,
1
who has
made a special study of the plant and its essential oil :—
" In Manila, where the conveniences for careful distillation are greater
FIG. 50.—Cananga (in front of a Pagoda Bangkoh).
[Rvure-Berti and FUs.
than in outlying districts, fine oils as well as second-class oils, which are
frequently known even there as ' Cananga ' oil, are produced, but in the
provinces the distillers, who are compelled to work with less scientific
apparatus, generally produce only a second-class oil. As the distillers,
usually do not possess any ylang-ylang plantations of their own, they
are compelled to purchase the flowers. In order to increase the weight,,
the blossoms, picked by the natives during the night and brought to the
distilleries in the morning, are frequently moistened as much as possible
with water and mixed with leaves and twigs. Moreover, quite three-
fourths of the blossoms delivered at Manila are green and unripe, although
the use of ripe yellow blossoms is of the greatest importance for the
yield and quality of the oil. In Manila the best blossoms are picked in
May and June, although in 1907 the trees blossomed so late that the dis-
VOL. I.
1
Philipp. Jour. Sc., 3 (108), 65, and S^himmel's Report.
33