esprit de rose. The soap not allowing the perfume to evaporate very
fast, we cannot be surfeited with the smell of the otto.

The finest preparation of rose as an odor is made at Grasse, in France.
Here the flowers are not treated for the otto, but are subjected to the
process of maceration in fat, or in oil, as described under jasmine,
heliotrope, &c.

The rose pomade thus made, if digested in alcohol, say 8 lbs. of No. 24
Pomade to one gallon of spirit, yields an esprit de rose of the first
order, very superior to that which is made by the addition of otto to
spirit. It is difficult to account for this difference, but it is
sufficiently characteristic to form a distinct odor. See the article on
fleur d'orange and neroli (pp. 77, 78), which have similar qualities,
previously described. The esprit de rose made from the French rose
pomade is never sold retail by the perfumer; he reserves this to form
part of his _recherche_ bouquets.

Some wholesale druggists have, however, been selling it now for some
time to country practitioners, for them to form extemporaneous
rose-water, which it does to great perfection. Roses are cultivated to
a large extent in England, near Mitcham, in Surrey, for perfumers' use,
to make rose-water. In the season when successive crops can be got,
which is about the end of June, or the early part of July, they are
gathered as soon as the dew is off, and sent to town in sacks. When they
arrive, they are immediately spread out upon a cool floor: otherwise, if
left in a heap, they heat to such an extent, in two or three hours, as
to be quite spoiled. There is no organic matter which so rapidly absorbs
oxygen, and becomes heated spontaneously, as a mass of freshly gathered
roses.