PETALA ROS^ GALLICiE. 259 



Uses — The drug is employed solely as a vermifuge, and is effectual 

 for the expulsion both of Tcenia solium and of Bothriocephalus kit us. 

 The Abyssinian practice is to administer the flowers in substance in a 

 very ample dose, which is sometimes attended with alarming and even 

 fatal results. 



The notion that the action of the drug is partially mechanical and due 

 to the hairs of the plant, prevails iu England, and has led to the use of 

 an unstrained infusion of the coarsely powdered flowers. This remedy, 

 from the quantity of branny powder (2 to 4 drachms) that has to \>e 

 swallowed, is far from agreeable ; and as it occasions strong purgation and 

 sometimes vomiting, it is not often prescribed.^ 



The fruit of the koso tree, a small indehiscent achene, is stated by M. 

 Th. von Heuglin^ to act even more powerful than the flowers ; he calls it 

 (or the seed ?) Kosala. It would appear that the fruits have been used 

 as an anthelmintic two centuries ago in Abyssinia.' Dragendorff 

 (1878) found them to be rich in fatty matters, but devoid of an alkaloid. 



PETALA ROSiE GALLICiE. 



Flores Roscb rubrcB ; Red Rose Petals, Rose Leaves, True Provins Roses; 

 F. Petales de Roses rouges, Roses de Provins ; G. EssigrosenhUitter. 



Botanical Origin — Rosa gallica L., a low-growing bush, with a 

 creeping rhizome throwing up numerous stems. The wild form with 

 single flowers occui*s here and there in the warmer parts of Europe,* 

 including Central and Southern Russia, and Greece; also in Asia Minor, 

 Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Caucasus. But the plant passes into so 

 many varieties, and has from a remote period been so widely cultivated, 

 that its distribution cannot be ascertained with any exactness. As a 

 garden plant it exists under a multitude of forms. 



History — The use in medicine of the rose dates from a very remote 

 period. Theophrastus^ speaks of roses being of many kinds, including 

 some with double flowers which were the most fragrant ; and he also 

 alludes to their use in the healing art. Succeeding writers of every age 

 down to a recent period have discussed the virtues of the rose,^ which 

 however is scarcely now admitted to possess any special medicinal 

 property. 



One of the varieties of R. gallica is the Provins Rose, so called from 

 having been long cultivated at Provins, a small town about 60 miles 

 south-east of Paris, where it is said to have been introduced from the 

 East by Thibaut VI., Count of Champagne, on his return from the 

 Crusades, a.d. 1241. But it appears that he went then to Navarre and 

 in later times never resided in the Champagne. Be this as it may, 

 Provins became much celebrated not only for its dried rose-petals, but 



^ Johnston in his Travels in Southern ^ Jobi Lndolfi Historia cethiopica, Fran- 



Abyssinia (1844), speaking of koso, says its cofnrti, 1681. lib. i. cap. ix. 



eflfects are " dread/ul/y severe." — Even in * It has been found in ^uo^i- wild state 



Abyssinia, he adds, it is barely tolerated, at Charlwood in Surrey. — Seemann'sJourn. 



and if any other remedy equally efficient for of Bot. ix. (1871) 273. 



dislodging tapeworm were tobe introduced, ^ Hist. Plant, lib. vi. c. 6. 



koso would be soon abandoned. ^ Consult in particular the learned essay 



' Reise nach Abessinien, etc. Jena, 1868. of D'Orbessan contained in his Melanges 



322. historiqueg, ii (1768) 297-337. 



