PEKFUMES OF THE ROSE. 



195 



''they pluck the roses every morning before sunrise, 

 while the dew is yet upon them ; they then place them 

 immediately in the alembic, not allowing them to become 

 dry or heated by remaining too long a time without dis- 

 tillation. This lucrative branch of manufacture has not 

 escaped the monopoly of Mehemet Ali. 'No private indi- 

 vidual can now distil roses in Egypt, and those who culti- 

 vate them are obliged to sell the petals to government at 

 a low price. The value of all the rose-water distilled in 

 Fayoum, annually, is estimated at 50,000 or 60,000 francs." 

 Of the profusion with which rose-water is used in India, 

 some idea may be formed from the narrative of Bishop 

 Heber, who was shown, in the ruins of the palace of 

 Ghazepoor, a deep trench round an octagonal platform of 

 blue, red, and white mosaic pavement. This trench, he 

 was told, was filled with rose-water when the i^awab and 

 his friends were feasting in the middle. " The ancient oil 

 of roses," according to Loudon, " is obtained by bruising 

 fresh rose-petals, mixing them with four times their 

 weight of olive oil, and leaving them in a sand-heat for 

 two days. If the red Rose of Provence is used, the oil is 

 said to imbibe no odor ; but if the petals of pale roses are 

 employed, it becomes perfumed. This preparation was 

 celebrated among the ancients. Pliny says that, accord- 

 ing to Homer, roses were macerated for their oil in the 

 time of the Trojans. The oil is chiefly used for the hair, 

 and is generally sold in perfumers' shops, both in France 

 and England, under the name of J^'^huile antique de Hose,^^ 



Spirit of roses is made by distilling rose-petals with a 

 small quantity of spirits of wine, and forms an agreeable 

 article for external applications. The green leaves of the 

 sweet-brier are sometimes, in France, steeped in spirits of 

 wine to impart a fragrance ; and in England they are fre- 

 quently used to flavor cowslip wine. 



As the 23etals of the rose ^^reserve their fragrance for a 

 long time after being dried, many are in the habit of mak- 



