ROSA GALLICA. ORD. XXVIL. Senilcoae, A99 
Ess. Gen. Ch. .Petala 5. Cal. urceolatus, 5-fidus, carnosus, collo 
coarctatus. Sem. plurima, hispida, calycis interiori lateri 
affixa. 
Sp. Ch. R. germinibus ovatis pedunculisque hispidis, caule 
petiolisque hispido-aculeatis. 
THIS species does not rise so high as the Centifolia, but much 
resembles it in its foliage. Linneus rests their specific difference 
on the greater roughness and prickliness of the leaf-stalks of the 
gallica, but from the observations we have made, this circumstance 
is not sufficiently remarkable to found the distinction. The petals. 
of this species, though large and spreading, are never half so 
numerous as in the centifolia, and are of a deep crimsom colour. 
It is a native of the south of Europe, and is now common in our 
gardens; flowering in June and July. 
« The flowers give out their virtue both to watery and rectified 
spirit, and tinge the former of a fine red colour, but the latter of 
avery pale one: the extract obtained by inspissating the watery 
infusion is moderately austere, bitterish, and subsaline; the spi- 
rituous extract is considerably stronger both in astringency and 
bitterness.”’* 
The flowers of this species of rose possess neither the fragrance 
nor the laxative power of those of the centifolia, but are chiefly 
valued for their astringent qualities,* which are most considerable 
befvre the petals expand, and therefore in this state they are 
chosen for medicinal use, and ordered by the pharmacopeeias in 
different preparations, as those of a conserve, a honey, an infusion, 
zit . M..p.' 543. 
* Poterius, however, relates, that he found a dram of powdered red roses oc- 
easion three or four stools, and this not in a few instances, but oe tn 
several. See Lewis, l. ¢. 
> Both the astringency and the colour of the petals are best preserved by hasty 
exsiccation, 
