GERANIACEAE
Recent experiments in the study of plant perfumes have shown that molecules of the plant’s substance are present in the perfume exhaled by the flowers or leaves. So sniffing a perfumed flower can be not only pleasant but therapeutic as well. The scented nosegays and posies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ladies could well have given them some protection from air-borne germs as well as sensory pleasure. Even the men, walking the sometimes fetid and certainly unsanitary streets of the cities, carried small bunches of aromatic herbs and spices to help disguise the rank infective air. The use of snuff was a refinement of this practice, the herbs and spices used being powdered and inhaled; and the sneezing that followed cleared the breathing passages. Many of the common ingredients of snuff have been found, through later scientific research, to have a real antiseptic action, cinnamon and marjoram being two of the strongest. Instead of that cigarette, why not start a “new” fad? Produce a tiny snuff-box from your vest pocket, take two elegant sniffs, and free into your jaded sinuses some of Nature’s natural antiseptic aromatic herbs and spices.
The leaves of scented geraniums, bruised and used as a poultice applied to cuts and grazes were often mentioned in the old herbals. They have quite pronounced antiseptic properties.
The original geranium was the single scarlet “Herb Robert” or Cranesbill from gerahus, a crane. The flower shape was said to resemble the head of this bird. This small-flowered geranium would not recognize some of the impressive large double and scented-leaved members of its family which have been hybridized for garden display. Most of the scented so-called “geraniums” are pelargoniums, and there are several very worthy of a place in your herb garden or border. Dry them for pot-pourri hung head downwards in small bunches, or laid flat on screens.
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