PERFUMES OF THE ROSE. 43 



less adulterated. In the countries where it is manufactured, 

 they frequently increase the quantity of the attar, by mixing 

 scrapings of sandal-wood with the rose-petals during the process 

 of distillation. Ksempfer, a German writer, states this mode of 

 adulteration to have been known a long time, and adds that the 

 sandal-wood gives additional strength to the attar ; but another 

 author, who has also made some researches on the subject, 

 asserts that the sandal-wood injures the delicacy of the attar, 

 which is more sweet and agreeable when mild, than when 

 strong. 



The quality, as well as the quantity of attar, which they ob- 

 tain from roses, depends upon the proportion of aroma which they 

 contain ; and this is found more developed at the south and in 

 a warm climate. The kinds of roses used in distillation have 

 also a great influence on the quality of the attar. In Persia 

 and the East, the Musk Rose is generally used ; and the Damask 

 is employed in France. 



Although roses are distilled in large quantities at Paris, for 

 perfumery and for medical purposes, very little attar is made, 

 because the proportion of the manufactured article to the roses 

 required, is in that climate extremely small ; so small in fact, 

 that, according to one writer, five thousand parts in weight of 

 rose-petals, will scarcely produce one part of essential oil. This 

 limited manufacture exists only at Grasse and Montpelier in 

 France, and at Florence in Italy. 



Some years since, the adulteration of attar was successfully 

 practised in the south of France, by mixing with it the essence 

 distilled from the leaves of the Rose Geranium (Pelargonium 

 odoratissimum). This adulteration is very difficult to detect, 

 because, this last essence possesses the same properties as the 

 attar; its odor is almost the same like that, it is of a lemon 

 color, it chrystalizes at a lower temperature, and its density is 

 very little greater. 



The attar, when pure, is, beyond comparison, the most sweet 

 and agreeable of all perfumes. Its fragrance is the most delicate 

 conceivable, and equals that of the freshly expanded Rose. It is 



