PDF - CES (IISc)

LICHENS IN PERFUMERY 419
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 P/iyscia 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 1
(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
2
by Zwelser
include both Evernia and
, a Palatine medical doctor. The lichen employed in his pjeparation,
as in Bauhin's, is Usnea, but that may
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 :
li oz. powdered root of white Iris.
i^- oz. of Cyperus (a sedge).
I scruple or half drachm of musk reduced to a pulp with fragrant spirit
of roses.
\ 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 it dryness 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."
1 Bauhin 1650, p. 88.
2 Zwelser 1672.
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