40 
ROSA CENTIFOLIA. 
fore seems the most proper for the production of rose-water, which 
is almost the only use to which they are applied. These roses pos- 
sess but very slight medicinal properties, and are seldom adminis- 
tered internally, &c. 
Sensible Qualities. The petals (the only part directed for 
medicinal use) are of a pale red colour, and of a very fragrant 
odour ; their taste sweetish, subacidulous, with a very slight degree 
of bitterness. The petals impart their odorous matter to watery 
liquors, both by distillation and infusion. On distilling large 
quantities, there separates from the watery fluid a small portion of a 
fragrant butyraceous oil, which liquefies by heat, and appears 
yellow, but concretes in the cold into a white mass. The attar or 
essential oil is obtained from various species of rose. We are in- 
formed by Dr. Ainslie, (vide Materia Indica, vol. i. p. 348), that 
the attar of the Levant and Tunis is prepared from the Rosa Sem- 
pervirens. The fragrance of the attar depends much upon the 
species of rose from whence it is distilled. According to Kaempher 
and M. Langles,* those of Shiray and Cashmire are highly odori- 
ferous, whilst the attar drawn from the roses of Syria and Barbary 
is of an inferior qUality. The odour of this oil exactly resembles that 
of the rose, which to most people is extremely agreeable ; hence it is 
much used as a perfume. f We may notice, however, that under 
certain circumstances, the odour has produced very untoward symp- 
toms, as faintings, hysterical affections, inflammation of the eyes, 
&c. ; and persons confined in a close room with a large quantity of 
roses have been in danger of immediate extinction of life. ^Orfila, in 
speaking of the deleterious effects of odoriferous plants, relates an 
instance of a celebrated painter, who could not remain in any room 
where there were roses, without being in a short time attacked with 
violent cephalagia, succeeded by fainting. Ledelius speaks of a 
* R^cherches sur la D6coaverte de I'Essence de Rose. 
t The process of makinnf essential oil, or attar of roses, as related by Colonel 
Poller in the Asiatic Researches, is as follows : Forty pounds of roses, with their 
calyxes, are put into a still with sixty ponnds of water. The mass being well mixed, 
a gentle fire is put under the still, and when fumes begin to rise, the cap and pipe are 
properly fixed and luted. When the impregnated water begins to come over, the fire 
is lessened by gentle degrees, and the distillation continued until thirty pounds of 
•water have come over. This water is to he poured upon forty pounds of fresh roses, 
^d thence are to be drawn from fifteen to twenty pounds of distilled water. It is then 
poured into pans of earthen-ware, or of tinned metal, and left exposed to the fresh air 
for the night ; the ottar, or oil, will be found io the moruiag congealed, and swimming 
on the surface of the water. 
