part i

. 174-177, speaks of the roses of Provins being “hautes en couleur, c’est à dire d’un rouge noir, velouté ... très astringentes.”

[990] Assier, _Légendes, curiosités et traditions de la Champagne et de la Brie_, Paris. 1860. 191.

[991] Stephanus (Carolus), _De re hortens libellus_, Paris, 1536. 29 (in Brit. Mus.).

[992] _Dispensatorium_, 1548. 39. 52.

[993] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for_ 1871-72, pt. ii. 43.

The colouring matter which is so striking a constituent of the petals, is according to Senier an acid, which appears to form crystallizable salts with potassium and sodium.[994] An infusion of the petals is pale red, but becomes immediately of a deep and brilliant crimson if we add to it an acid, such as sulphuric, hydrochloric, acetic, oxalic, or tartaric. An alkali changes the pale red, or the deep crimson in the case of the acidulated infusion, to bright green.

=Uses=—An infusion of red rose petals, acidulated with sulphuric acid and slightly sweetened, is a very common and agreeable vehicle for some other medicines. The confection made by beating up the petals with sugar, is also in use.

PETALA ROSÆ CENTIFOLIÆ.

_Flores Rosæ pallidæ v. incarnatæ_; _Provence Rose_, _Cabbage Rose_; F. _Pétales de Roses pâles_; G. _Centifolienrosen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa centifolia_ L.—This rose grows in a wild state and with single flowers in the eastern part of the Caucasus.[995] Cultivated and with flowers more or less double, it is found under an infinity of varieties in all the temperate regions of the globe. The

## particular variety which is grown in England for medicinal use, is

known in English gardens as the _Cabbage Rose_, but other varieties are cultivated for similar purposes on the Continent.

_R. centifolia_ L. is very closely allied to _R. gallica_ L.; though Boissier maintains the two species, there are other botanists who regard them as but one. The rose cultivated at Puteaux near Paris for druggists’ use, and hence called _Rose de Puteaux_, is the _Rosa bifera_ of Redouté, placed by De Candolle though doubtfully under _R. damascena_.

=History=—We are unable to trace the history of the particular variety of rose under notice. That it is not of recent origin, seems evident from its occurrence chiefly in old gardens. The _Rosa pallida_ of the older English writers on drugs[996] was called _Damask Rose_, but that name is now applied at Mitcham to _Rosa gallica_ L., which has very deep-coloured flowers.

=Production=—The Cabbage Rose is cultivated in England to a very small extent, rose water, which is made from its flowers, being procurable of better quality and at a lower cost in other countries, especially in the south of France. At Mitcham, whence the London druggists have long been supplied, there are now (1873) only about 8 acres planted with this rose, but a supply is also derived from the market gardens of Putney, Hammersmith and Fulham.

[994] _Yearbook of Pharm._ 1877. 63; also Filhol in _Journ. de Pharm._ xxxviii. (1860) 21; Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvi. (1864) 522.

[995] Boissier, _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 676.

[996] As Dale, _Pharmacologia_, 1693. 416.

=Description=—The Cabbage Rose is supplied to the druggists in the fresh state, full blown, and picked off close below the calyx. A complete description is scarcely required: we need only say that it is a large and very double rose, of a beautiful pink colour and of delicious odour. The calyx is covered with short setæ tipped with a fragrant, brown, viscid secretion. The petals are thin and delicate (not thick and leathery as in the Tea Roses), and turn brown on drying.

In making rose water, it is the custom in some laboratories to strip the petals from the calyx and to reject the latter; in others, the roses are distilled entire, and so far as we have observed, with equally good result.

=Chemical Composition=—In a chemical point of view, the petals of _R. centifolia_ agree with those of _R. gallica_, even as to the colouring matter. Enz in 1867 obtained from the former, malic and tartaric acid, tannin, fat, resin, and sugar.

In the distillation of large quantities of the flowers, a little essential oil is obtained. It is a butyraceous substance, of weak rose-like, but not very agreeable odour. It contains a large proportion of inodorous stearoptene. For further particulars see remarks under the head _Attar of Rose_.

=Uses=—Cabbage roses are now scarcely employed in pharmacy for any other purpose than making rose water. A syrup used to be prepared from them, which was esteemed a mild laxative.

OLEUM ROSÆ.

_Attar or Otto[997] of Rose_, _Rose Oil_; F. _Essence de Roses_; G. _Rosenöl_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa damascena_ Miller, var.—This is the rose cultivated in Turkey for the production of attar of rose; it is a tall shrub with semi-double, light-red (rarely white) flowers, of moderate size, produced several on a branch, though not in clusters. Living specimens sent by Baur[998] which flowered at Tübingen, were examined by H. von Mohl and named as above.[999]

_R. damascena_ is unknown in a wild state. Koch[1000] asserts that it was brought in remote times to Southern Italy, whence it spread northward. In the opinion of Baker[1001] Rosa damascena is to be referred to Rosa gallica (see p. 259 above); it must be granted that the Rose mentioned in footnote 2, as grown with one of us, approaches very much to Rosa gallica.

=History=—Much as roses were prized by the ancients, no preparation such as rose water or attar of rose was obtained from them. The liquid that bore the name of _Rose Oil_ (ῤόδινον ἔλαιον) is stated by Dioscorides[1002] to be a fatty oil in which roses have been steeped. In Europe a similar preparation was in use down to the last century, _Oleum rosarum_, _rosatum_ or _rosaceum_, signifying an infusion of roses in olive oil in the _London Pharmacopœia_ of 1721.

[997] _Attar_ or _Otto_ is from the word _itr_ signifying _perfume_ or _odour_; the oil is called in Turkish _Itr-yàghi_ i.e. _Perfume-oil_, and also _Ghyùl-yàghi_ i.e. _Rose oil_.

[998] A living plant followed by excellent herbarium specimens has been kindly given to me by Dr. Baur of Blaubeuren, the father of Dr. Baur of Constantinople—D. H.

[999] Wiggers u. Husemann, _Jahresbericht_ for 1867. 350.

[1000] _Dendrologie_, i. (1869) 250.

[1001] _Journ. of Botany_, Jan. 1875. 8.

[1002] Lib. i. c. 53.

The first allusion to the distillation of roses we have met with, is in the writings of Joannes Actuarius,[1003] who was physician to the Greek emperors at Constantinople towards the close of the 13th century. Rose water was distilled at an early date in Persia; and Nisibin, a town north-west of Mosul, was famous for it in the 14th century.[1004]

Kämpfer speaks[1005] with admiration of the roses he saw at Shiraz (1683-4), and says that the water distilled from them is exported to other parts of Persia, as well as to all India; and he adds as a singular fact, that there separates from it a certain fat-like butter, called _Ættr gyl_, of the most exquisite odour, and more valuable even than gold. The commerce to India, though much declining, still exists; and in the year 1872-73, 20,100 gallons of rose water, valued at 35,178 rupees (£3,517), were imported into Bombay from the Persian Gulf.[1006] Rose oil itself is no longer exported from Persia, as it still used to be from Shiraz in the time of Niebuhr (1778).

Rose water was much used in Europe during the middle ages, both in cookery and at the table. In some parts of France, vassals were compelled to furnish to their lords so many bushels of roses, which were consumed in the distillation of rose water.[1007]

The fact that a butyraceous oil of delicious fragrance is separable from rose water, was noticed by Geronimo Rossi[1008] of Ravenna in 1582 (or in 1574?) and by Giovanni Battista Porta[1009] of Naples in 1589; the latter in his work on distillation says—“Omnium difficillime extractionis est rosarum oleum atque in minima quantitate sed suavissimi odoris.”[1010] The oil was also known to the apothecaries of Germany in the beginning of the 17th century, and is quoted in official drug-tariffs of that time.[1011] Angelus Sala, about 1620, in describing the distillation of the oil speaks of it as being of “ ... candicante pinguedine instar Spermatis Ceti.” In Pomet’s time (1694) it was sold in Paris, though, on account of its high price, only in very small quantity. The mention of it by Homberg[1012] in 1700, and in a memoir by Aublet[1013] (1775) respecting the distillation of roses in the Isle of France, shows that the French perfumers of the last century were not unacquainted with true rose oil, but that it was a rare and very costly article.

The history of the discovery of the essence in India, is the subject of an interesting and learned pamphlet by Langlès,[1014] published in 1804. He tells us on the authority of oriental writers, how on the occasion of the marriage of the Mogul emperor Jehan Ghir with Nur-jehan, A.D. 1612, a canal in the garden of the palace was filled with rose water, and that the princess observing a certain scum on the surface, caused it to be collected and found it of admirable fragrance, on which account it received the name of _Atar-jehanghiri_, i.e. _perfume of Jehan Ghir_. In later times, Polier[1015] has shown that rose oil is prepared in India by simple distillation of the flowers with water. But this Indian oil has never been imported into Europe as an article of trade.

[1003] “ ... stillatitii rosarum liquoris libra una.” _De Methodo Medendi_, lib. v. c. 4.

[1004] _Voyage d’Ibn Batoutah_, trad. par Defrémery, ii. (1854) 140.

[1005] _Amœnitates_, 1712. 373.

[1006] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay_ for 1872-73,