•^ The Scented Qarden ($£ 



Three seasons are required to procure all these Flowers 

 in perfection ; Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Every 

 time you gather any of these Flowers, add them im- 

 mediately to the infusion, mixing them thoroughly with 

 the other ingredients ; and three days after you have put 

 in the last Flowers, put the whole into a glass cucurbit, 

 lute on the head carefully, place it in a water bath over a 

 slow fire, keep the receiver cool, and draw off five quarts 

 of Spirit, which will prove of rare quality. As a medicine, 

 it is far more efficacious than Balm-water ; and for its 

 fine scent, one of the best perfumes. 



The Toilet of Flora. 



The Oil commonly called the Spirit of Roses. 



Take of Damask, or red Roses, being fresh, as many as 

 you please, infuse them in as much warm water as is 

 sufficient for the space of twenty four houres : Then 

 strain, and press them, and repeat the infusion severall 

 times with pressing, untill the liquor become fully im- 

 pregnated, which then must be distilled in an Alembick 

 with a refrigerator, let the Spirit which swims on the 

 Water be separated, and the water kept for a new in- 

 fusion. 



This kind of Spirit may be made by bruising the Roses 

 with Salt, or laying a lave of Roses, and another of Salt, 

 and so keeping them half a year or more, which then 

 must be distilled in as much Common water, or Rose- 

 water as is sufficient. 



John French. The Art of Distillation (1652). 



230 



