CHAPTER XV 



HOW TO PRESERVE FRAGRANT MEMORIES 



"You may break you may shatter the vase if you will 

 But the scent oj the Roses will' bang round it still." 



— ^Thomas Moore 



Attar of Roses 



THE reader will notice on another page a short account 

 of a visit made to that most beautiful rose-garden south 

 of Paris, the Roseraie de I' Hay. Many chapters might 

 be written of this Httle paradise about which clusters so much 

 of interest to a rose-lover. But there is in that wonderful garden 

 a quaint thatched "summer-house," as we in America might 

 call it, rose-embowered. On the occasion of the author's visit, 

 there was at work in the Uttle cottage a white-aproned chemist 

 with large-sized retort, test-tubes, spirit-lamps, and other 

 apphances. The rose-petals which had been gathered in the 

 garden were being reduced to essence or attar of roses. M. 

 Gravereaux improved the method of extracting the oils, and, 

 furthermore, proved by extensive experiments that certain per- 

 petual-flowering roses, hke Mme. Carohne Testout, are capable 

 of producing a much larger amount of the essence than the 

 Damask and Centifoha roses heretofore largely used. 



He cross-hybridized especially the Rugosas producing the 

 dehciously fragrant Roseraie de I'Hay and later Rose a Parfum 

 de I'Hay. All such varieties were assembled in one garden 

 called "The Collection of Perfumed Roses." 



The method employed by M. Gravereaux was superior to 

 that of the Bulgarians, Persians, and Algerians, whose apparatus 

 is most primitive, as their formula which follows, will indicate: 

 The rose-petals must be distilled as they are picked, otherwise 

 much of their odor will be lost. They are brought right to the 

 stills, which are made of copper, and there mixed with only 

 water, the quality of which is said considerably to influence 

 the essence distilled. After the mixture has been twice boiled down 

 to one-eighth or one-tenth its original volume, it is allowed to 

 cool, and is set in open bowls at a constant temperature. Grad- 

 ually the essence rises and swims on the surface in yellowish 

 patches, which are skimmed off with a mother-of-pearl spoon. 



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