ROSES. 599 
Roses is a costly product, because consisting of the comparatively 
few oil globules found floating on the surface of a considerable 
volume of Rose-water thrice distilled. It takes five hundred- 
weight of fresh Rose petals to produce one drachm by weight 
of the finest Attar, this being preserved in tiny bottles made 
of rock crystal. The scent of the most minute particle of the 
genuine essence is very powerful, and enduring. 
‘“‘ Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem, testa diu,” said 
Horace; which Moore has delightfully rendered thus :— 
“You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the Roses will hang round it still.” 
Tennyson has most suggestively propounded the query :— 
“ Oh, to what uses shall we put 
The bind-weed flower that simply blows ? 
And is there any moral shut 
Within the bosom of the Rose ?” 
“* Rose-water ” (so called) was at one time the only approved 
flavour for pound cake; and this ‘“‘ water ” was really good old 
brandy (often of home distillation), or peach, or cherry brandy, 
in which the petals of Damask Roses had been macerated. To 
make a conserve of Red Roses, according to the Compleat 
Housewife: ‘‘ Take Rosebuds, and pick them, and cut off the 
white part from the red, and choose the red flowers, and sift 
them through a sieve to take out the seeds; then weigh them, 
and to every pound of flowers take two pounds and a half of 
loaf sugar ; beat the flowers pretty fine in a stone mortar, then 
by degrees put the sugar to them, and beat it very well till it 
is incorporated together, then put it into gallipots, and tie it 
over with paper, and over that with leather; it will keep for 
seve years.” Again, in Adam’s Lucury, and Eve's Cookery 
(London, 1744): ‘“* To make conserve of Red Roses, as designed 
for the use of all who would live cheap, and preserve their health 
to old age: Take one pound of Red Rosebuds, and bruise them 
with a wooden pestle in a marble mortar, adding by degrees 
of white loaf sugar, powdered, and sifted, three pounds ; continue 
beating them till no particles of the Roses can be seen, and till 
the mass is all alike.” Concerning Rosa gallica (the Red French 
Rose), its full-blown flowers are as laxative as those of the 
Cabbage Rose (Centifolia). Poterius relates that “he found a 
drachm of powdered Red Roses occasion three, or four stools ; 
