adjective
definition
Having an odor or fragrance.
Examples of odoriferous in a Sentence
The civets, being celebrated for their odoriferous secretion, are likely animals to have been naturalized.
In its literal meaning the word "incense" is one with the word "perfume," the aroma given off with the smoke (per fumum2) of any odoriferous substance when burnt.
The kohl or black powder with which the modern, like the ancient, Egyptian ladies paint their languishing eyelids, is nothing but the smeeth of charred frankincense, or other odoriferous resin brought with frankincense, and phials of water, from the well of Zem-zem, by the pilgrims returning from Mecca.
But the consumption of all manner of odoriferous resins, gum resins, roots, woods, dried leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds in India, in social as well as religious observances, is enormous.
The process is based on the principle that whilst the odoriferous substances are insoluble in water, their vapour tension is reduced on being treated with steam so that they are carried over by a current of steam.
Less tender plants can be treated by the analogous method of maceration, which consists in extracting the odoriferous substances by macerating the flowers in hot oil or molten fat.
These researches incidentally solved the constitution of coumarin, the odoriferous principle of woodruff.
To allure and attract them to visit the flower the odoriferous secretions and gay colours are developed, and the position and complicated structure of the parts of the flower are adapted to the perfect performance of the process, It is comparatively rare in hermaphrodite flowers for self-fertilization to occur, and the various forms of dichogamy, dimorphism and trimorphism are fitted to prevent this.
The process of enfleurage is used in those cases where the odoriferous substance is present to a very small extent, and is so tender and liable to deterioration that it cannot be separated by way of distillation.
The idea held by several writers, including Niebuhr, that frankincense was a product of India, would seem to have originated in a confusion of that drug with benzoin and other odoriferous substances, and also in the sale of imported frankincense with the native products of India.
It was cut on the rocks by an Egyptian nobleman named Hannu, who states that he was sent by Pharaoh Sankhkere, Menthotp IV., with a force gathered out of the Thebaid, from Coptos to the Red Sea, there to take command of a naval expedition to the Holy Land of Punt (Puoni), "to bring back odoriferous gums."
The hard transparent resins, such as the copals, dammars, mastic and sandarach, are principally used for varnishes and cement, while the softer odoriferous oleo-resins (frankincense, turpentine, copaiba) and gum-resins containing essential oils (ammoniacum, asafoetida, gamboge, myrrh, scammony) are more largely used for therapeutic purposes and incense.
Dioscorides refers to it as agallochon, a wood brought from Arabia or India, which was odoriferous but with an astringent and bitter taste.