JUNE. 229 



so tedious is the manufacture of any quantity, that 

 half a drachm of the Uttr can scarcely be obtained 

 from a hundred pounds of rose petals.* The scent of 

 the minutest grain of the genuine essence, is however, 

 very powerful. 



A French author who has written a work on the 

 " Histoire Naturelle de la Eose" lauds it as "1'orne- 

 ineiit de la terre, 1'eclat des plantes, 1'oeil des fleurs, 

 1'email des prairies, une beaute eclatante ; elle exhale 

 1'amour, elle attire et fixe Venus ; toutes ses feuilles 

 sont charmantes, son bouton vermeil s'entr'ouvre avec 

 uiie grace infinie, et sourit delicieusement aux zephyrs 

 ainoureux. - - De tout temps cette charmante fleur fut 

 le sujet des idees le plus flatteuses, des comparaisons 

 les plus douces, et des emblemes les plus volupteux." 

 So that as he truly observes " Le nom seul de la rose 

 reveille dans notre ame tant d' idees agreables, d'images 

 interessantes, de comparaisons aimables, de souvenirs 

 delicieux, qu'on aurait pu accuser 1'auteur d'un defaut 

 de gout, s'il n'avait pas rappele a ses lecteurs les vers 

 immortels que la rose inspira aux Sapho, aux Anacreon 

 et a tant d'autres poetes anciens ou modernes, dont le 

 nom ne perira janiais." A few roseate ideas and in- 

 teresting observances connected with the rose, can 



* A traveller in Cashmere thus describes the manufacture of this pre- 

 cious essence, which he says GHOOLAB SINGH has absorbed into his own 

 hands " Uttr, and not Otto, is the proper term. The rose-leaves, care- 

 fully picked and fresh, are boiled in a large copper vessel, with a little 

 water, and the steam arising is condensed in a still. This forms the rose- 

 water, it is distilled three times, and then placed in an earthen vessel 

 during the night in a stream of running water. In the morning the Uttr 

 is found floating in small globules on the surface of the rose-water. It 

 takes five hundred weight of rose petals to produce one drachm by weight 

 of the best Uttr , it is however seldom procurable unadulterated, and that 

 sold in the bazaars of India owes its scent mainly to sandal-wood, from 

 which a cheap oil is easily procured. The best Uttr is preserved in small 

 bottles made of rock chrystal." Lit. Gaz. Jan. 1850. 



