cussion between two French chemists, but without deciding the fact whether the Rosa Gallica was superior in medical properties to any other rose. It seems to be acknowledged that those cultivated at Provence were superior to the same kind grown elsewhere, and this superiority is attributed by some to the presence of iron in the soil about that city. It was probably owing, also, to the very careful cultivation practiced there. The petals are used extensively in several medical preparations, as the sugar of roses, the ointment of roses, the treacle of roses, etc. Rose-water is, however, more extensively used in medicine than any other preparation of the rose. This water, when manufactured from Rósa Gallica, or any other of the section of Centifolia, is employed internally as an astringent, and is sometimes mixed with other medicines. to destroy their disagreeable smell and taste. In external applications, it is used principally for affections of the eyes, either alone or with some ointment.

The alcoholic tincture of roses, or spirit of roses, before mentioned, which was formerly given as a stimulus in many cases, has now fallen very much into disuse, medical opinion being very much against the employment of any alcoholic medicines excepting in very rare cases.

The syrup of roses, manufactured from the pale or Damask Rose, is sometimes employed as a purgative, and was once highly esteemed and recommended as a mild laxative. It is now, however, scarcely considered purgative, and its laxative properties are probably owing in a great measure to the senna and other articles which enter into its preparation.

The electuary of roses, which is now no longer used, was also probably indebted for its medical qualities to the addition of scammony, a very strong purgative.

Vinegar of roses is made by simply infusing dried rose-petals in the best distilled vinegar, to which they communicate their perfume. It is used for cooking and

for the toilet, and for headaches, when applied in the same way as common vinegar. The ancients prepared this vinegar, and also the wine and oil of roses, which are no longer used.

Honey of roses is made by beating up rose-petals with a very small portion of boiling water; the liquid, after being filtered, is boiled with honey. This is esteemed for sore throats, for ulcers in the mouth, and for anything that is benefited by the use of honey.

The fruit of the rose is said also to possess some astringent properties; the pulp of the fruit of the wild varieties, particularly of the dog rose, after being separated from the seeds and beaten up in a mortar with sugar, makes a sort of conserve, formerly known in medicine under the name of Cynorrhodon.

Children in the country sometimes eat these fruits after they have attained perfect maturity, and have been somewhat mellowed by the frost; they then lose their pungent taste, and become a little sweet. Belanger, a French writer, who traveled in Persia in 1825, found in that country a rose whose fruit was very agreeably flavored. The apple-bearing rose (R. villosa pomifera) produces the largest fruit of all, and is the best adapted for preserving; but an English writer remarks that the fruit of R. systyla and R. arvensis, although of a smaller size, bears a higher flavor than that of any other species. Rose-buds, like the fruit, are also frequently preserved in sugar, and pickled in vinegar. Tea is sometimes made of the leaves of the rose, which are also eaten readily by the domestic animals.

The ends of the young shoots of the sweet-brier, deprived of their bark and foliage, and cut into short pieces, are sometimes candied and sold by the confectioners.

The Dog Rose takes its name from the virtue which the ancients attributed to its root as a cure for hydrophobia. The heathen deities themselves, according to Pliny, re

vealed this marvelous property, in dream, to a mother whose son had been bitten by a dog affected with this terrible disease.

The excrescences frequently found on the branches of the Rose, and particularly on those of the wild varieties, known to druggists by the Arabic name of Bédeguar, and which resemble in form a little bunch of moss, partake equally of the astringent properties of the Rose. These excrescences are caused by the puncture of a little insect, known to naturalists as the Cynips rosa, and, occasionally, nearly the same effects are produced by other insects.

CHAPTER XVI.

GENERAL REMARKS.

The name of the Rose is very similar in most languages, but of its primitive derivation very little or nothing is known. It is rhodon in Greek; rhos, in Celtic; rosa, in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, and Polish ; rose, in French, Saxon, and English; rosen, in German; roose, in Dutch; rhosha, in Sclavonic; ros, in Irish; ruoze, in Bohemian; ouasrath, in Arabic; nisrin, in Turkish; chabhatzeleth, in Hebrew; and gul, in Persian. These are the various names by which the flower has been known from very early times, and a strong resemblance can be traced through all. The Latin name, rosa, also forms a component part of terms used to designate several other things.

The name of rosary was given to a string of beads used in the Romish Church to represent a certain number of prayers; it was instituted about the year 667, but was not

much used until Peter the Hermit excited the Christian nations to the Crusade, about 1096. Dominique, a Romish saint, established, in 1207, the brotherhood of the Rosary, and the festival of the Rose was instituted in 1571 by Pope Pius V., in thanksgiving for the victory gained by the Christians over the Turks at Lepante. Subsequent popes gave to that ceremony more eclat, and caused it to be established in Spain. The name of rosary was formerly also given to the vessel used in distilling rose-water. The Rose has also given the idea of new forms of beauty in architecture and the arts. A rose is sometimes sculptured in the centre of each face of a Corinthian capital. It is also frequently seen in iron castings for the banisters of the stone steps of a house, and it is sometimes displayed upon the pavement in front of some splendid mansion. This, however, is rare in the United States, although frequent in Europe.

Among all the imitations of the Rose, none can compare with those painted on glass, some of which can be found in the windows of celebrated European Cathedrals in Canterbury, Cologne, Milan, Rheims, St. Denis, and other's. We can scarcely imagine anything more beautifully soft than these paintings on glass, as seen from the interi or of a church, in the rich light of a glowing sunset; the Rose thus painted seems to possess all the freshness and beauty of the real flower.

The nave of the Cathedral of Paris, besides twenty-four large windows, is lighted by three others, large and magnificent, in the shape of a Rose, which are each forty feet. in diameter. The paintings on glass which ornament these windows were executed in the 13th century, and still retain their fresh and bright colors: that over the grand entrance represents the signs of the zodiac, and the agricultural labors of each month.

In heraldry, the rose frequently forms part of a shield, in full bloom, with a bud in the centre, and with five

points to imitate thorns; it is an emblem of beauty and of nobility acquired with difficulty.

The Golden Rose was considered so honorable a present, that none but monarchs were worthy to receive it.

In the 11th century, the Pope introduced the custom of blessing a golden Rose, which he presented to some church, or to some prince or princess, as an especial mark of his favor.

In 1096, the Pope Urban II. gave a Golden Rose to the Comte d'Anjou. Alexander III. sent one to Louis, King of France, in acknowledgment of the attentions of that prince during the Pope's visit to France, as stated in a letter which he wrote the King.

"In accordance with the custom of our ancestors, in carrying a rose of gold in their hands on Dimanche Lætare, we do not think we can present it to one who merits it more than yourself, from your devotion to the Church and to ourselves."

Pope John, in 1415, sent the Golden Rose to the Emperor Sigismund. Martin V., in 1418, sent another to the same prince. Pius II., in 1461, sent one to Thomas Paleologue, Emperor of Constantinople. Henry VIII., of England, before his separation from the Church of Rome, received the Golden Rose twice; the first from Julius II., and the second from Leo X.; and in 1842, the Pope's Nuncio Capaccini presented it to Donna Maria, Queen of Portugal. Isabella, Queen of Spain, was presented with it a few years since.

The public ceremony of blessing the Rose was not instituted until 1366, by Urban V.: that pontiff, wishing to give a particular mark of his esteem to Joanna, Queen of Sicily, solemnly blessed a Golden Rose, which he sent her, and made at the same time a decree, that a similar one should be consecrated every year. For fifty or sixty years, the Pope gave the Rose to princes who came to Rome; and it was the custom to give 500 louis to the