OLEUM ROS^. itj5 



for a day or two, by which time most of the oil, bright and fluid, will 

 have risen to the surface. From this, it is skimmed off by means of a 

 small tin funnel having a fine orifice, and provided with a long handle. 

 There are usually several stills together. 



The produce is extremely variable. According to Baur,^ whose in- 

 teresting account of attar of rose is that of an eye -witness, it may be 

 said to average 004 per cent. Another authority estimates the average 

 yield as 0037 per cent. 



The harvest during the five years 1867-71 was reckoned to average 



somewhat below 400,000 metkals^ or 4226 lb. avoirdupois; that of 



lb73, which was good, was estimated at 500,000 meticals, value about 

 £70,000.3 



Roses are cultivated to a considerable extent about Grasse, Cannes 

 and Nice in the south of France ; and besides much rose water, which 

 is largely exported to England, a little oil is produced. The latter, 

 which commands a high price, fuses less easily than the Turkish. 



There is a large cultivation of the rose for the purpose of making 

 rose water and attar, at Ghazipur on the Ganges, Lahore, Amritsar and 

 other places in India, but the produce is wholly consumed in the 

 country. The species thus cultivated is stated by Brandis * to be li. 

 damascena. Medinet Fa;^^m, south-west of Cairo, supplies the great 

 demand of Egypt for rose vinegar and rose water. 



Tunis has also some celebrity for similar products, which however 

 do not reach Europe. A recent traveller " states that the rose grown 

 there, and from which attar is obtained, is Rosa canina L., which ia 

 extremely fragrant; SO lb. of the flowers afford about 1^^ drachms, 



worth 15s. When at Genoa, in 1874, one of us (F.) had the opportunity 

 of ascertaining that excellent oil of rose is occasionally imported there 



from Tunis. 



Tlie butyraceous oil which may be collected in distilling roses in 

 tjigland for rose water is of no value as a perfume. 



Description— Oil of rose is a light-yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 087 to 

 0'89. B}^ a reduction of temperature, it concretes owing to the separa- 

 tion of light, brilliant, platy crystals of a stearoptene, the propor- 

 tion of which differs with the country in which the roses have been 

 grown, the state of the weather during which the floAvers were gathered, 

 and other circumstances less well ascertained. The oil produced in the 

 iialkans solidifies, according to Baur, at from 11 to 16° C. Li some 

 experiments made by one of us ^ in 1859, the fusing point of true 

 Aurkish attar was found to vary from 16 to 18° ; that of a sample from 

 inoia was 20° C. ; of oil distilled in the south of France, 21 to 23°, of 

 an oil produced in Paris, 29° ; of oil obtained in distilling roses for rose 

 ^vater in London, 80 to 32° C. 



From these data, it appears that a cool northern climate is not 

 conducive to the production of a highly odorous oil; and even m 



I Pharm. Journ. ix. (1868) 286. Central India, 1ST4. 200.— D. Forbes Wat- 



Unsular licports presented to Parlia- son, Catal. of the Indian Department, 



^nt. May, 1872.— The metical, miskal or Vienna exhibition, 1873. 98. 



^^y IS equal to about 3 d^vt. troy-4794 ' Von Maltzan Rci^e m den _ liegent. 



^f^^^s. ■' schaften Tunis vnd Tripobs, Leipzig, 1870. 



n,^,T^^^>- Jieports prcmifcd to Parlia- « Hanbury, Pharm. Jouni. x.viu. (1859). 



"^^' Aug. 1873. 1090. 504-509. Science Papers, 112. 



^<^rcsl Flora of Xorth- western and 



