ROSACEA. 22V 



been used to make a conserve with sugar, and is an article included in the Phar- 

 nmcopreia. The so-called fruit is truly the enlarged persistent calyx enclosing the 

 real fruits, which are numerous small achenia, clothed, as well as the inside of the 

 calyx, with silky hairs. lu preparing them for officinal use, the hairs and achenia 

 are to be carefully removed, and the fleshy calyx beaten to a pulp, to which, 

 gradually, thrice their own weight of white sugar is to be added. The employ- 

 ment of heat in the preparation of this conserve is directed in the Pliarmacoiiceia ; 

 but it is better omitted. The pulp consists chiefly of malic and citric acids, in 

 combination mostly with some salts, tannin, resins, a small quantity of volatile and 

 fixed oils, woody fibre, and a large quantity of sugar. The action on the stomach is 

 slightly refrigerant and aperient, its sweetness recommending it to children, and as 

 a vehicle for other medicines. It is apt to candy or concrete by keeping. The fresh 

 hips, freed from the fruit and hairs, bruised, and having a little sugar added, yield, 

 by having hot water poured on them, a cooling mildly-astringent drink, which would 

 be grateful to the jioor suffering from autumnal fevers. In former times, when garden 

 fruit was scarce, these hips were esfeemed for dessert. Gerarde assures us that the 

 hips of the rose " maketh the most pleasante meats and banqueting dishes, and tarts 

 and such-like, the making whereof" he commits to the "cunning cooke and teethe to 

 eate them in the riche man's mouth." The Germans still use them as an ordinary 

 preserve ; and this, as well as a preserve of the blossom, is employed in our own vilLige 

 confectionary. The flowers still form an article of luxury among the Chinese ; and Sir 

 John Davis, ia describing a fea.st given to him at Shangbae, mentions a ragout of the 

 flowers of the common China Kose dressed whole, which celestial and ambrosial dish 

 be, however, declares to have been a mixture of salt, sour and other indescribable 

 flavours, such as forbade a repetition ; being therein of a difl^erent opinion from Master 

 Gerarde, who atHrms that they are greatly to be desired as a culinary vegetable, " as 

 well for their virtues and goodness in taste, as also for their beautiful colour." Geiarde 

 hints at "divers other pretty things made of roses and sugar, which are impertinent 

 unto our historic." 



Pliny, Galen, and others have dwelt much on the virtues of the tufty spongioles 

 which we often find growing on the branches of wild Roses, and which children call 

 " Robin's pincushions." All sorts of medicinal qualities have been attributed to tliem, 

 and they were supposed to be parts of the iJose itself ; but we know now that they are 

 excrescences produced by the insect powers of the Cynips Rosas, a little insect which 

 deposits its eggs in the miniature bud, and thus arrests its development. 



Of the Roses we have many varieties which are favourites in the garden. R. Indica^ 

 the China Rose, is perhaps the most beautiful, and is found wild about Canton, in China. 

 It blossoms six or eight times a year, and its colour varies from a delicate blush to a 

 deep crimson. There is a hybrid variety between this species and the R. odorata, which 

 is well known in gardens as the tea-scented China Rose. The varieties of this pretty 

 Rose grow abundantly in France in the open air ; they do not well bear the climate of 

 England. The Austrian Rose — Ro.sa lutea — is known by its foliage existing only at 

 the e-xtremity of its branches ; prickles under the stipules, and leaflets hollow. The 

 most brilliant yellow roses are produced from this species : they require a moist and 

 dry pure air, and do well without pruning. The Rose, as among Eastern nations, has 

 ever been a favourite in France. Some of the French deeds or "acts" of the Jliddle 

 Ages contain clauses stipulating for certain " rentes " of Roses. Such rents, too, have 

 been paid in our own country. Lord Brougham still holds the castle of High Head in 

 capite of the Queen " by the service of a red Rose rendered annually at Carlisle." In 



