The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-02-12
Written for the Palotka Ne,cs.i
FLORIDA PLANTS.
Our Vegetable and Flower Gardens "A Medicinal
Private Tres sure
BY DIR. 4. scHArrnAssk. rALArkA. FLA.
XIX.
TIE RosE-coNTINUED.

The rose yields but little to the mass
of vegetable materials made subservient
to the uses of man. The leaves of the
red rose are slightly laxative, astringent
and tonic, but are used chiefly in infu-
sions as vehicle for administration of
duced by the distillation of the flowers
Of various species. The ''attar of roses is
volatile oil, existing in very minute
quantities in rose leaves, is obtained by
perfume. The best rose water and rose
oil is made in Turkey. About fifteen
miles to the northwest of Adrianople is
a district in the vicinity of Kisanlik,
from where the most and best is inn
ported. There are IA villages which
have employed in the production of the
oil of roses $500 stills. The copper stills
which are used there, contained 120
quarts each, and are filled with sixty
pounds of rose leaves and fifteen pounds
of water. As one rose bush gives only
one and a half pounds of rose leaves,
they have to pick the roses of one hun
dred thousand bushes for one distillery.
From one hundred pounds of rose leaves
it is possible to gain one-half of an
ounce of oil. Those leaves which are
crushed ia IN iron mortar become black
perfumed beads. Besides the oil and
water, syrup of roses, honey of roses,
vinegar of roses may be obtained.
Asa house remedy the leaves and hips of
roses are generally used. If you will
collect in the forenoon the leaves of
roses well developed, you may gain an
excellent flour by stamping the leaves of
one hundred roses, to which the yellow
of two eggs, water and wheat flour
should be added. All those ingredients
have to be mixed very well, and then
well and hard baked. After baking is
done the mixture must be powdered
finely. Take one or two tablespoonfuls
of this powder, stir it very well with
milk, boil it by soft fire, add
to 1T sugar and cinnamon and you will
have a pap which Is highly recon-
mended as good nutritive and corrobo-
rative for old and feeble people, The
pulp of the fruit of the wild rose is an
excellent nutritive, slightly refrigerant
and astringent, and forms the conserve
of hips. A decoction of the hips is
good specific in spasm of the stomach.
The honey of roses is a good defensive
Ixv L.. II
mouth if used as gargle or as a wash,
while the vinegar of roses applied to the
| forehead cures headache. Having said
all in regard to the medicinal virtues of
the rose, we now proceed to poetry and
conclude with its meaning in history.
The love of flowers dates back to the
| oldest time, and was felt by the first peo-
| pie of the earth. The hopes and desires
of all were paradise, and every ones
paradise was beautiful garden of ever
lasting youth and bloom, an eternal liv-
ing, loving and resting among flowers;
flowers in the hair, flowers in the bosom,
flowers as pulled pillows for elysian
| slumber. The first love makes known
its desires and hopes by a bouquet of
| flowers, husband and wife like to
! brighten and beautify their sweet home
| with their harmless. magnifieence. On
| the neat little workable of the mistress
| of the house glitters pretty rose tree
or some other plants and around the
| picture of the beloved parents, sister
! and brother creeps a wreath of ever
| green with its bright and lovely eyes.
Everywhere you will find people anx-
| ious to have their garden nicely decor
ated with flowers, at every festivity you
| will find flowers to correspond and they
| are strewed as a token of friendship and
| love over the graves of the departed.
And even foreign specimens are raised
| IN greenhouses. But so the culture of
flowers is an agreeable occupation, still
1t causes the diligent guardian and OBJ
server pain and sorrow. How the thought
must trouble him, when he sees that he
will only have the pleasure of looking
| at the flowers for a few hours
| for whose growth and raising he
has taken SO much pains? Why must
| thing be taken away from Us, when it
has reached its perfection? Well, some
wither, others bloom, there never passes
a day but new flower comes to view.
We are still luckier than our Northern
friends for even in the depth of the
Northern winter we are surrounded by
flowers of those plants, which please us
the most. There are great many, but
the prize has been awarded to but one as
queen of the beautiful children of Flora
and that is the rose. In every moment
of Its short life though it may bud, be
at the height of perfection, die or fall off
leaf by leaf, we will find certain like
ness in it to ourselves. When in the even
ing its head droops it resembles deeply
| thinking man and awakens in his soul
thousand new and dark visions. He
who leads happy life notices in the
day time in ecstaey the pureness of its
forms, the brightness of its colors. the
luxury of its structure, intoxi-
Gates himself in its odor. and every
thing shows him his perfect happi-
ness. When the winter is passed every
one looks forward full of expectation,
especially in the North for the first rose,
for the happiest time is the time when
roses bloom, for roses signify in their
natural sense the delights of love while
IN their spiritual sense they correspond
with the delights of the truth of wis
dom.
The wild roses may be said to be the
parent of nearly all our beautiful gar
den varieties inasmuch as they furnish