8 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
with the exception of a portion of South America, 
and the actual tropics. 
It is very extensively cultivated in Persia and 
Bulgaria for the manufacture of attar or otto of 
Roses and Rose-water, which are distilled from the 
petals. In Persia a variety of the Musk Rose (Rosa 
moschata) is used for this purpose, but it has not 
the real odour of musk, which is said to be found 
only in Salet, a Perpetual Moss Rose. In Bulgaria, 
the country which is the largest producer of the 
otto, a variety of the Damask Rose (R. damascena) 
known as Kazanlik, is used: and experts allege that 
the Damask and Provence (R. centifolia) Roses are 
the best representatives of the true inimitable odour 
of Rose. The modes of distillation in these Kastern 
countries are very primitive and imperfect, and 
moreover in Bulgaria there has been considerable 
adulteration of the valuable otto with geraniol or oil 
of pelargonium. The finest otto of Roses now in 
the market is manufactured by modern skilled 
appliances in Germany, near Leipzig, where the 
Bulgarian variety of Damask Rose is used, and in 
France, near Grasse, where a strain of the Provence 
Rose is cultivated for the purpose. Rose-water and 
otto of Roses are also made in India, Turkey, and 
other places. 
Few readers of a Rose-book will care for much 
research into the history of the Rose. ‘The late 
Mr. William Paul has with much care gone deeply 
into that subject in his large volume The Kose 
Garden, and I will only touch a few points, and 
refer inquirers on this subject to his fuller work. 
Homer’s allusions to the Rose in the Iliad and 
the Odyssey are, I suppose, the earliest mentions 
