WILD BRIER. 151 
part an agreeable flavour to culinary preparations, 
and also to some kinds of cordials. It should be re- 
marked that, although, from their fragrance, roses are 
much used for nosegays, their odour has sometimes 
produced very alarming symptoms in persons sitting 
or sleeping with such nosegays in confined apart- 
ments. 
165. The WILD BRIER, or HEP-ROSE (Rosa ca- 
nina), is a common wild flower in hedges, and is distinguished 
by having a so?newhat egg-shaped fruit, smooth flower-stalks, 
the prickles of the stem hooked, and the leaves oval, pointed, 
smooth, and shining. 
We possess no wild shrub more ornamental to the 
country, in its flowers, its foliage, or its fruit, than 
this; and its sweet and delicate scent, though less 
powerful, is perhaps as grateful as that of any rose that 
is known. Thejlotvers, when distilled, afford a pleasant 
perfumed water. The fruit, or heps, contain an acid 
yet sweetish pulp, with a rough prickly matter en- 
closing the seeds. Of the pulp, when carefully sepa- 
rated from this substance, and mixed with sugar, is 
prepared the conserve of heps of the shops, which, 
though of little medicinal virtue itself, is used to give 
form to more active medicines. In the north of Europe, 
the fruit of the rose, with the addition of sugar, is 
sometimes employed in the preparation of domestic 
wines ; and the pulp, in a dried state, affords a grate- 
ful ingredient in sauces : but it is supposed that a still 
greater advantage might be derived from the fruit by 
distillation. The leaves of this, and indeed of every 
kind of rose, have been recommended as a substitute 
for tea. On the Continent they are employed in curry- 
ing the finer kinds of leather. 
On the branches of this tree a singular moss-like and 
prickly excrescence is frequently found. This, which 
is caused by an insect (Cynipi rosce), and forms the 
habitation of its offspring, was formerly in great medU 
cinal repute ; but it is now seldom used. 
