190 



PARSONS ON THE ROSE. 



attar is worth about forty dollars. Bishop Heber also 

 speaks of its enormous price at Ghazepoor, where the 

 variation in price is also very great, being, according to 

 Langles, sometimes as low as eight dollars an ounce. 



At one time, soon after its discovery, it was valued at 

 about five times its weight in gold. Until quite recently, 

 it was worth its weight in gold, but now sells in Paris for 

 about one quarter that value. 



Attar is rarely found pure in commerce ; it is always 

 more or 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. Kaempfer, 

 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 au- 

 thor, 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 

 obtain 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 emj)loyed 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 ar- 

 ticle 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 pro- 

 duce one part of essential oil. This limited manufacture 



