74 THE BOOK OF ROSES. 



PHARMACOPOEIA OF THE ROSE. 



IT is not surprising that the most beautiful 

 and fragrant of flowers should have found en- 

 thusiasts to celebrate its virtues ; and more than 

 one volume has been published in honour of its 

 medicinal properties. Hermann, in his " Dis- 

 sertatio inauguralis botanico-medica de Rosa," 

 published in 1762, did not hesitate to announce 

 it as a specific cure for all the maladies in exis- 

 tence, and to assert that a whole Pharmacopoeia 

 was concentrated in the rose. Hippocrates was 

 however the first to enlarge upon its virtues. 



The medical properties of the rose may be 

 comprised in a very narrow compass. 



First, as regards the spongy substance found 

 on certain rose-trees, particularly on the hedge 

 or dog rose, known in medicine under the 

 name of the rose-gall, which proceeds from 

 the sting of an insect called by Linnseus the 

 cynips roses. This spongy or filamentous tuft 

 is sometimes as large as an egg ; either round 

 or oval, green or of a reddish hue, having an 

 acrid taste. The antients regarded this ex- 



