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The species of rose mostly cultivated at the moment in Southern 

 France, is Rosa damascena Mill., of which a local variety la Muscadine 

 is particularly popular. In addition to these, there are also cultivated 

 the Rose de Provins, a form of Rosa gallica, and Rosa centifolia L. 

 They are chiefly worked up for rose water, and rose oil is only 

 obtained thereby as a by-product, and is consequently of no importance 

 for the trade. 



The distillation is carried on thus: 50 kilos flowers are added 

 to 300 litres water, and from this 100 litres rose water (value 

 60 francs) are distilled off. The quantity of oil obtained in this 

 process (which oil is said to be of a distinctly finer quality than the 

 Bulgarian oil) amounts to at most 1 gram (== 2 francs). In the two 

 departments Alpes-Maritimes and Var, about 1500 acres are cultiv- 

 ated with roses, the yield per acre being about 1200 kilos, making 

 a total of 1800000 kilos rose blossoms. Based upon the above 

 yields, the production of rose oil is 36 kilos, and that of rose water 

 3600000 litres, of a total value of 2232000 francs. Besides this 

 distillation process, which is almost universally employed in the South 

 of France, here and there the system of enfleurage (with paraffin), 

 and the extraction of the blossoms with petroleum ether or carbon 

 disulphide (?) are used; in the last-named case the yield from 100 kilos 

 flowers is 10 grams oil. 



Now trials have lately been made with varieties of the Japanese 

 rose, Rosa rugosa Thunb., which have given extremely favourable 

 results. Two varieties come above all under consideration, viz., Rose 

 de V Hay and Roseraie de FHay 1 ), which are so called from the 

 township of FHay where the first trials were made to extract oil 

 from these flowers. Like all Japanese roses, they have large blossoms, 

 and are generally strongly built and very hardy. In Central France 

 they blossom from the beginning of April to the beginning of November, 

 and during all that time very abundantly. It is probable that at 

 the Riviera they will blossom throughout the year. The cultivation 

 must be arranged in such manner that the distances between the 

 individual plants are 1 metre in every direction, so that (after deducting 

 the roadways) the number of bushes is about 3200 to one acre. As 

 one rose bush, from its third year, yields on an average 200 blossoms 

 annually, each of which weighs about 4 grams, the result per bush is 

 about 800 grams blossoms, and per acre about 2560 kilos blossoms, 

 i. e. more than double the yield obtained with the rose cultivated at present. 



1 ) According to the Journal de la Parfumcrie et Savonnerie francaises [20 

 (1907), 146] the Rose de I' Hay has been obtained by J. Gravereaux, of l'Hay, 

 by crossing Rosa rugosa with a cross between Rosa damascena and the species 

 Ge'ne'ral-Jacqtieminot, whilst the Roseraie de V Hay is a similar variety grown by 

 Cochet-Cochet, of Coubert (department Seine-et-Marne). 



