_Flores Rosæ pallidæ v. incarnatæ_; _Provence Rose_, _Cabbage Rose_; F.
_Pétales de Roses pâles_; G. _Centifolienrosen_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa centifolia_ L.—This rose grows in a wild state
and with single flowers in the eastern part of the Caucasus.[995]
Cultivated and with flowers more or less double, it is found under an
infinity of varieties in all the temperate regions of the globe. The
particular variety which is grown in England for medicinal use, is
known in English gardens as the _Cabbage Rose_, but other varieties are
cultivated for similar purposes on the Continent.
_R. centifolia_ L. is very closely allied to _R. gallica_ L.; though
Boissier maintains the two species, there are other botanists who
regard them as but one. The rose cultivated at Puteaux near Paris
for druggists’ use, and hence called _Rose de Puteaux_, is the _Rosa
bifera_ of Redouté, placed by De Candolle though doubtfully under _R.
damascena_.
=History=—We are unable to trace the history of the particular variety
of rose under notice. That it is not of recent origin, seems evident
from its occurrence chiefly in old gardens. The _Rosa pallida_ of the
older English writers on drugs[996] was called _Damask Rose_, but that
name is now applied at Mitcham to _Rosa gallica_ L., which has very
deep-coloured flowers.
=Production=—The Cabbage Rose is cultivated in England to a very small
extent, rose water, which is made from its flowers, being procurable
of better quality and at a lower cost in other countries, especially
in the south of France. At Mitcham, whence the London druggists have
long been supplied, there are now (1873) only about 8 acres planted
with this rose, but a supply is also derived from the market gardens of
Putney, Hammersmith and Fulham.
[994] _Yearbook of Pharm._ 1877. 63; also Filhol in _Journ. de Pharm._
xxxviii. (1860) 21; Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvi. (1864) 522.
[995] Boissier, _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 676.
[996] As Dale, _Pharmacologia_, 1693. 416.
=Description=—The Cabbage Rose is supplied to the druggists in the
fresh state, full blown, and picked off close below the calyx. A
complete description is scarcely required: we need only say that it
is a large and very double rose, of a beautiful pink colour and of
delicious odour. The calyx is covered with short setæ tipped with a
fragrant, brown, viscid secretion. The petals are thin and delicate
(not thick and leathery as in the Tea Roses), and turn brown on drying.
In making rose water, it is the custom in some laboratories to strip
the petals from the calyx and to reject the latter; in others, the
roses are distilled entire, and so far as we have observed, with
equally good result.
=Chemical Composition=—In a chemical point of view, the petals of _R.
centifolia_ agree with those of _R. gallica_, even as to the colouring
matter. Enz in 1867 obtained from the former, malic and tartaric acid,
tannin, fat, resin, and sugar.
In the distillation of large quantities of the flowers, a little
essential oil is obtained. It is a butyraceous substance, of weak
rose-like, but not very agreeable odour. It contains a large proportion
of inodorous stearoptene. For further particulars see remarks under the
head _Attar of Rose_.
=Uses=—Cabbage roses are now scarcely employed in pharmacy for any
other purpose than making rose water. A syrup used to be prepared from
them, which was esteemed a mild laxative.