THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROSE. 199 



petals, and in order to preserve these properties, it is 

 highly essential that the petals should be quickly and per- 

 fectly dried. Those of the Provence Rose {Rosa Gallira) 

 have an astringent and somewhat bitter taste, and are 

 tonic and astringent in their effects. 



According to an analysis recently made in France, they 

 contain, besides vegetable matter and essential oil, a j^or- 

 tion of gallic acid, coloring matter, albumen, tannin, some 

 salts, with a base of potash or of chalk, silcx, and oxide 

 of iron. A small dose in i)owder strengthens the stomach 

 and assists digestion. Their prolonged use will sometimes 

 cause a slight constipation of the bowels, while in a much 

 stronger dose they act as purgatives. 



The co7iserve of the Provence Rose has much reputa- 

 tion in France for the treatment of all chronic affections 

 of the bowels, caused by weakness and inactivity of the 

 digestive organs ; it is also employed in colic, in diarrhoea, 

 in cases of hemorrhage and leucorrhoea. 



The conserve of any variety of roses is considered ex- 

 cellent in cases of cold or catarrh. It is prepared by 

 bruising in a mortar the petals with their weight in sugar, 

 and moistening them with a little rose-water, until the 

 whole forms a homogeneous mass. Some receipts pre- 

 scribe powdered petals mixed with an equal part of 

 sugar ; others direct to use two layers of sugar, and only 

 one layer of pulvei-ized petals. 



Opoix, a physician of Provence, states that the true Rose 

 of Provence has a more sweet and penetrating fragrance 

 than the same rose grown elsewhere, and even goes so far 

 as to say that it has acquired properties which it does not 

 possess in its native country, the Caucasus. On account 

 of the supposed superior qualities of tliis rose, the citizens 

 of Provence, in 1807, addressed a petition to government 

 to encourage in their territory the cultivation of the true 

 Provence Rose, by giving it the preference in all the hos- 

 pitals and military dispensaries. This gave rise to a dis- 



