102 HOW TO GROW ROSES 



the other hand, if a marble mortar be used, blue and red and 

 other colored beads can be manufactured according to the 

 coloring materials employed. The black beads are most 

 highly prized. They have been manufactured principally at 

 Adrianople, Smyrna, and Constantinople." 



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 L'Hay. Many chapters might be written 

 of this little paradise about which clusters so much of inter- 

 est 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 little cottage a white-aproned 

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

 other appliances. The rose-petals which had been gathered 

 in the garden were being reduced to essence or attar of roses. 

 M. Gravereaux has improved the method of extracting the 

 oils, and, furthermore, has proved by extensive experiments 

 that certain perpetual-flowering roses, like Caroline Testout, 

 and others, are capable of producing a much larger amount 

 of the essence than the Damask and Centifolia roses here- 

 tofore largely used. 



The method employed by M. Gravereaux is superior to 

 that of the Bulgarians, Persians, and Algerians, whose 

 apparatus is most primitive, as the following will indicate: 

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

 wise 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 in- 

 fluence the essence distilled. After having twice boiled down 

 the mixture to one-eighth or one-tenth its original volume, it 

 is allowed to cool, and is set in open bowls at a constant 

 temperature. Gradually the essence rises and swims on the 

 surface in yellowish patches, which are skimmed off with a 

 mother-of-pearl spoon. This operation, usually falling upon 



