THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROSE. 201 



for the toilet, and for headaches, when applied in the 

 same way as common vinegar. The ancients prepared 

 this vinegar, and also the wine and oil of roses, which are 

 no longer used. 



Honey of roses is made by beating up rose-petals with 

 a very small portion of boiling water ; the liquid, after 

 being filtered, is boiled with honey. This is esteemed for 

 sore throats, for ulcers in the mouth, and for anything 

 that is benefited by the use of honey. 



The fruit of the rose is said also to possess some astrin- 

 gent properties ; the pulp of the fruit of the wild varie- 

 ties, particularly of the dog rose, after being separated 

 from the seeds and beaten up in a mortar with sugar, 

 makes a sort of conserve, formerly known in medicine 

 under the name of Cynorrhodon. 



Children in the country sometimes eat these fruits after 

 they have attained perfect maturity, and have been some- 

 what mellowed by the frost ; they then lose their pungent 

 taste, and become a little sweet. Belanger, a French 

 writer, who traveled in Persia in 1825, found in that 

 country a rose whose fruit was very agreeably flavored. 

 The apple-bearing rose {R. vUlosa pomifera) produces the 

 largest fruit of al!, and is the best adapted for preserving ; 

 but an English writer remarks that the fruit of R. systyla 

 and R. arvensis^ although of a smaller size, bears a high- 

 er flavor than that of any other species. Rose-buds, like 

 the fruit, are also frequently preserved in sugar, and 

 pickled in vinegar. Tea is sometimes made of the leaves 

 of the rose, which are also eaten readily by the domestic 

 animals. 



The ends of the young shoots of the sweet-briei-, de- 

 prived of their bark and foliage, and cut into short pieces, 

 are sometimes candied and sold by the confectioners. 



The Dog Rose takes its name from the virtue which 

 the ancients attributed to its root as a cure for hydrophobia. 

 The heathen deities themselves, according to Pliny, re- 

 9* 



