The infusion of ruses is made by pouring boiling distilled water on the petals, and adding dilute sulphuric acid, which are allowed to macerate for six hours, and when strained, refined sugar is to be added. The vessel in which this process is conducted should not be glazed with lead. By this means is obtained an elegant, fragrant, and mildly astringent tonic and refrigerant liquid, which is of great utility, either alone, especially to check the wasting perspirations of consump tion, or as a vehicle for most salts which are formed with sulphuric acid. It is likewise employed as a gargle, alone, or with various adjuncts, one of the best of which is the mel rosiumni, or honey of roses, made with the petals of this kind of rose. A syrup is some times made with them, which is only used to sweeten and colour other medicines.
The Rosa centifolia, hundred-leaved rose, especially the variety of it termed the Provence or cabbage rose, is cultivated both on account of its exquisite perfume and the uses to which it, with its products, can be applied. The petals are the officinal article. They are directed to be collected when the flower is full blown; and to be plucked off, not allowed to fall off. It is better to collect them before the flower is fully expanded, as the odour rapidly diminishes as the antliesis proceeds ; 100 parts dry into 18 only. They are to be dried in the open air, and not in an oven, as desiccation impairs their fragrance, while it heightens that of the R. gallica. Their odour is said to be
singularly exalted by iodine. When dried, they are of a pale red, with a faint rose odour, and an astringent taste. They easily part with their colour, and are therefore to be protected from air and light : if salted, they may be preserved unimpaired for years. With the addition of salt, pepper, and cloves, they are used to form the rose pots which adorn the apartments of the rich, but which may equally be made to contribute to the enjoyment of the poor, as the expense of this perpetual feast is so small as not to be felt by the poorest occupier of a room. The colouring matter extracted by alcohol furnishes a most delicate test for the presence of alkalies.
A syrup is also made of this sort, but the chief use of it in England and France is to yield by distillation rose-water, the medical properties of which are too slight to merit further notice here. That to which spirit of wine has been added is unfit for medical purposes. In hot countries a large quantity of volatile oil is elaborated by the flowers of this and several other species, such as the Rosa moschata, Rosa damas cene, and in Italy the Rosa sempereircns, which constitutes the ether, ether, altar, utter, or alto of roses. [ATTAR OF Roses.] (Pereira's Materia Medica.)