July 1, 1S67.] 



HARDWICKE S S CIENCE-30SSIP. 



149 



here produced of surpassing fragrance, as well as 

 beauty — 



Who has not heard of the vale of Cashmere, 

 With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave ? 



A large quantity of rose-water, twice distilled, is 

 placed over night in a running stream, and in the 

 morning the oil is found floating on the surface, and 

 is carefully skimmed olf with a leaf of the sword- 

 lily. When cool it is greenish, and nearly solid. 

 Between 500 and GOO pounds of roses only produce 

 one ounce of attar. 



Extensive rose-farms exist also in Turkey, at 

 Adrianople, Broussa, and Ushak. The cultivators 

 are chiefly the Christian inhabitants of the low 

 countries of the Balkan. In good seasons 75,000 

 ounces are said to be produced iu this district, and 

 it is estimated that 2,000 flowers are required to 

 produce one drachm of attar. 



In the Orient the "Atar-gul," or essential oil 

 of roses is used as a perfume, and rose-water is 

 sprinkled about from vessels constructed for the 

 purpose over the guests and apartments, often to 

 the astonishment of Europeans, when their first 

 greeting chances to be, as it often is, a shower of 

 rose-water " squirted " in their faces. 



She snatched the urn wherein was mixed 

 The Persian Atargul's perfume, 

 And sprinkled all its odours o'er 

 The pictured roof and marble floor ; 

 The drops that through his glittering vest 

 The playful girl's appeal addressed 

 Unheeded o'er his bosom flew, 

 As if that breast were marble too. 



Wejare told that after the taking of Constanti- 

 nople the church of St. Sophia (or Constantine) 

 prior to its conversion into a mosque was washed 

 throughout with rose-water ; that Saladin would 

 not enter the walls of the temple of Jerusalem in 

 1188 until it had been purified by similar ablutions 

 of the same odoriferous fluid ; that the Moslems 

 employ it universally in the dedication of their 

 temples, and that even young Erench nobles were 

 formerly baptized in " Eau de Rose," or — 



Their earliest sniff 

 Of this world was a whiff 

 Of the genuine Otto of Roses ! 



During the whole season in which the roses are 

 in bloom, the inhabitants of Cashmere are said to 

 hold the " Eeast of Roses." Why should we attempt 

 to draw the veil which conceals the mysteries of 

 this long festival, of the sad or happy hearts upon 

 which the sun rises and sets in the vale of Cash- 

 mere ; of the moonlight meetings in the alcoves of 

 roses ; and of the consummation attained by the 

 " maid of Cashmere " when at the close of this glad 

 season all doubts and fears shall have vanished like 

 the morning dew from the petals of the rose. 



And happier now for all her sighs, 



As on his arm her head reposes, 

 She whispers him, with laughing eyes, 



" Remember, love, the Feast of Roses ! " 



THE BIRDS OF NORFOLK * 



r OCAL Floras have always been, from some 

 ■*-* cause or other, more numerous than local 

 Faunas. During the past year or two several good 

 Floras of English counties have made their appear- 

 auce, but, until now, not one county has had a 

 recent record of its "birds, beasts, or fishes." 

 Those who know anything of the ornithology of 

 Norfolk will not be surprised that a county so rich 

 in birds should be the first to set the example. 

 That the plants of a county should change with the 

 increase of cultivation may be reasonably expected, 

 and pleaded as an excuse for the publication of new 

 Floras. It may be urged, with equal truth, that 

 this change in vegetation also necessitates a like 

 change in the insects and birds, as well those birds 

 which are insect-feeders as those which are entirely 

 vegetarians. Hence a revision of the lists of birds 

 which inhabit counties is as much a necessity as 

 revised Floras. In the present instance it is not a 

 list which has been given to us, but a " history " in 

 two large octavo volumes, of which the first only is 

 at present published. 



In all departments of Natural History, when no 

 monograph or other special work is published 

 during a long series of years, much valuable and 

 important information becomes scattered over the 

 pages of our current scientific literature, and is 

 almost buried and forgotten. To recover all that 

 relates to the birds of Norfolk from this semi- 

 oblivion, has been one of the objects of the present 

 work. For many years the author has been one of 

 the chief contributors of " stray facts " to the 

 Zoologist, and similar publications, from this locality, 

 and hence he is now to a large extent the collector 

 and reviser of his own contributions. This forms 

 but a portion of the work which, though professing 

 to be only a local bird-Fauna, is a valuable addition 

 to the ornithology of the British Islands. 



In the " Introduction," the county is divided into 

 six districts, which are called respectively the 

 broad, cliff, meal, breck, fen, and inclosed districts. 

 It was in the first of these that most of our ornitho- 

 logical experience was gained. It is only neces- 

 sary, as Mr. Lubbock remarks, to draw an imaginary 

 triangle on the map from Lowestoft to Norwich, 

 and thence in a north-easterly direction to the sea 

 at Happisburgh, to include the whole of that 

 " great alluvial flat, once the bed of the Gariensis 

 ostium" whose sluggish waters give rise to those 

 shallow lakes, or lagoons, here locally termed 

 " Broads." These lagoons are peculiarly rich in 

 water fowl, and consequently the " Broad " district 

 will contribute much to the second volume. The 



* " The Birds of Norfolk, with Remarks on their Habits, 

 Migration, and Local Distribution." By Henry Stevenson, 

 F.L.S. In 2 vols. London: Van Voorst. 



