In Egypt, the nobles and wealthy inhabitants consume large quantities of rose-water; they scatter it over their divans, and other places where they spend their time; they also offer it with confectionary, to their visiters.

The custom of offering rose-water to a guest, is alluded to by Shakspeare, who makes one of his characters in Padua say:

"What is it your honor will command?

Let one attend him with a silver bason

Full of rose-water, and bestrewed with flowers."

Almost all the rose-water used in this country is distilled in the province of Fayoum, from the pale rose. "About the middle of February, in Fayoum," says a French writer, "they pluck the roses every morning before sunrise, while the dew is yet upon them; they then place them immediately in the alembic, not allowing them to become dry or heated by remaining too long a time without distillation. This lucrative branch of manufacture has not escaped the monopoly of Mehemet Ali. No private individual can now distil roses in Egypt, and those who cultivate them are obliged to sell the petals to government at a low price. The value of all the rose-water distilled in Fayoum, annually, is estimated at 50,000 or 60,000 francs." Of the profusion with which rose-water is used in India, some idea may be formed from the narrative of Bishop Heber, who was shown, in the ruins of the palace of Ghazepoor, a deep trench round an octagonal platform of blue, red, and white mosaic pavement. This trench, he was told, was filled with rose-water when the Nawab and his friends were feasting in the middle. "The ancient oil of roses," according to Loudon, "is obtained by bruising fresh rose-petals, mixing them with four times their weight of olive oil, and leaving them in a sand-heat for two days. If the red Rose de Provins is used, the oil is said to imbibe no odor; but if the petals of pale roses are employed, it becomes perfumed. This preparation was celebrated among the ancients. Pliny says that, according to Homer, roses were macerated for their oil in the time of the Trojans. The oil is chiefly used for

the hair, and is generally sold in perfumers' shops, both in France and England, under the name of l'huile antique de Rose."

Spirit of roses is made by distilling rose-petals with a small quantity of spirits of wine, and forms an agreeable article for external applications. The green leaves of the sweet briar are sometimes, in France, steeped in spirits of wine, to impart a fragrance; and in England they are frequently used to flavor cowslip wine.

As the petals of the rose preserve their fragrance for a long time after being dried, many are in the habit of making annually little bags filled with them. These, being placed in a drawer or wardrobe, impart an agreeable perfume to the linen or clothing with which they may come in contact. The petals can be obtained from almost any garden, in sufficient quantity for this purpose, and can be dried by the process mentioned hereafter. The confectioners, distillers, and perfumers, of France, draw from the Rose the greater part of their perfumes, particularly from damascena and centifolia, in fixing their sweet odors in sugar-plums, creams, ices, oils, pomatum, essences, and fragrant powders.

The petals of the Rose, after being freshly picked and bruised in a marble mortar, until they are reduced to a sort of paste, are employed in the preparation of different kinds of confectionary. Of this paste the French also make little perfume balls, of the size of a pea. They are made round in the same manner as pills, and before becoming hard, they are pierced with a needle and thread on a piece of silk. In a little while they become hard like wood, assume a brownish color, and emit a delightful perfume. This rose scent continues very long, and one writer remarks, that he has known a necklace, made in this style, possess, at the end of 25 years, as strong a perfume as when first made.

In Great Britain, in the vicinity of the large cities, and in many private gardens, the flowers are gathered for making rose-water or for drying as perfumes. In Holland, the Dutch' hundredleaved and common cabbage-rose are grown extensively at Noordwich, between Leyden and Haarlem, and the dried leaves

are sent to Amsterdam and Constantinople. In France, the Provins Rose is extensively cultivated near the town of Provins, about 60 miles south-east of Paris, and also at Fontenay aux Roses, near Paris, for the manufacture of rose-water, or for exportation in a dried state. The petals of the Provins Rose. (Rosa gallica) are the only ones that are said to gain additional fragrance in drying; all the other varieties losing in this process more or less of their perfume. A French writer states, that apothecaries employ both pale and red roses; the pale give the most perfume, while the red keep the longest.

Loudon states, that "the petals of roses ought always to be gathered as soon as the flower is fully expanded; and the gathering should never be deferred until it has begun to fade; because, in the latter case, the petals are not only discolored, but weakened in their perfume and their medical properties. They should be immediately separated from the calyx, and the claws of the petals pinched off; they are then dried in the shade, if the weather is dry and warm, or by a stove in a room, if the season is humid; care being taken, in either case, not to spread them on the ground, but on a platform raised two or three feet above it. The drying should be conducted expeditiously, because it has been found that slowly dried petals do not exhale near so much odor as those which have been dried quickly; which is also the case with hay, sweet herbs, and odoriferous vegetables generally. After the petals are dried, they are free from any sand, dust, or eggs of insects, which may adhere to them, by shaking them and rubbing them gently in a fine seive. After this the petals are put into close vessels, from which the air is excluded, and which are kept in a dry, airy situation.

"As it is extremely difficult to free the rose-petals entirely from the eggs of insects, they are taken out of these vessels two or three times a year, placed in seives, rubbed, cleaned, and replaced."

I have been careful to give the details of the above process, because it may be useful to those who embark extensively in the cultivation of roses, for the exportation of petals in a dried in state. Judging from facts in vegetable physiology, we should

suppose that rose-petals produced in this latitude, where the Rose has a long period of hibernation, would produce more perfume and be more valuable in a dried state than those grown under the tropics. The Provins and Damask Rose are both known to succeed well here and to produce abundant flowers. Their fragrance is unsurpassed, and our summer's sun would be abundantly sufficient to dry the petals without any artificial heat. It is not too much to hope that the attention of our cultivators may yet be directed to this subject, and that the manufacture of rose-water and the preparation of dried petals may yet be an important branch of domestic industry, and form an important addition to the list of exported articles.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROSE.

E have hitherto viewed the Rose as the chief ornament of our gardens, and if we have found it abounding with charms of fragrance and beauty, we shall now find it occupying a prominent place in materia medica. Some authors have, with a degree of exaggeration, endeavored to make its medical as brilliant as its floral reputation. Rosenberg, in his work on the Rose, makes it a specific in every disease, and even attributes to it supernatural virtues.

In the opinion of most medical men, the medical properties of the Rose are about the same in all the kinds, while some writers assert that the Rosa gallica is superior to all others in a greater or less degree. We will mention those principally used in medicine, and the properties which are especially attributed to each.

The most valuable properties of the Rose reside in its petals, and in order to preserve these properties, it is highly essential that the petals should be quickly and perfectly dried. Those of the Provins Rose (Rosa gallica) have an astringent and somewhat bitter taste, and are tonic and astringent in their effects.

According to an analysis recently made in France, they contain, besides vegetable matter and essential oil, a portion of gallic acid, coloring matter, albumen, tannin, some salts, with a base of potash or of chalk, silex and oxyde of iron. A small dose in powder strengthens the stomach and assists digestion. Their pro