CHAP. 73.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FLOWERS BEFORE MEN-
TIONED: THIRTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE ROSE.
The rose is of an astringent and refreshing nature. For
medicinal purposes the petals, the flowers, and the heads are
used. Those portions of the petals which are quite white are
known as the unglets.
1 In the flower there is the seed, as
distinguished from the filaments, and in the head there is the
bud,
2 as well as the calyx. The petals are dried, or else the
juice is extracted from them, by one of the three following
methods: Either the leaves are employed whole for the purpose, the unglets not being removed—for these are the parts,
in fact, that contain the most juice—or else the unglets are
first taken off and the residue is then macerated with oil or
wine, in glass vessels placed in the sun. Some persons add
salt as well, and others alkanet,
3 or else aspalathus or sweetscented rush; as it is, when thus prepared, a very valuable remedy for diseases of the uterus and for dysentery. According
to the third process, the unglets are removed from the petals,
and pounded, after which they are subjected to pressure in a
coarse linen cloth, the juice being received in a copper vessel;
it is then boiled on a slow fire, until it has acquired the consistence of honey; for this purpose, however, the most odoriferous of the petals should be selected.
(19.) We have already stated,
4 when speaking of the various kinds of wines, how rose wine is made. Rose juice is
much used in injections for the ears, and as a gargle for ulcerations of the mouth, and for the gums and tonsils; it is employed also for the stomach, maladies of the uterus, diseases
of the rectum, and for head-ache. In fevers, it is used, either
by itself or in combination with vinegar, as a remedy for
sleeplessness and nausea. The petals, charred, are used as a
cosmetic for the eyebrows;
5 and the thighs, when chafed, are
rubbed with them dried; reduced to powder, too, they are
soothing for defluxions of the eyes. The flower of the rose is
soporific, and taken in oxycrate it arrests fluxes in females,
the white flux in particular; also spitting of blood, and pains
in the stomach, if taken in three cyathi of wine, in sufficient
quantity to flavour it.
As to the seed of the rose, the best is that which is of a saffron colour, and not more than a year old; it should be dried,
too, in the shade. The black seed is worthless. In cases of
tooth-ache, the seed is employed in the form of a liniment; it
acts also as a diuretic, and is used as a topical application for
the stomach, as also in cases of erysipelas which are not inveterate: inhaled at the nostrils, it has the effect of clearing,
the brain. The heads of roses, taken in drink, arrest looseness of
the bowels and hæmorrhage. The unglets of the rose are
wholesome in cases of defluxion of the eyes; but the rose is
very apt to taint all ulcerous sores of the eyes, if it is not applied at the very beginning of the defluxion, dried, and in
combination with bread. The petals, too, taken internally, aro
extremely wholesome for gnawing pains of the stomach, and
for maladies of the abdomen or intestines; as also for the thoracic organs, if applied externally even: they are preserved, too,
for eating, in a similar manner to apathum. Great care must
be taken in drying rose-leaves, as they are apt to turn mouldy
very quickly.
The petals, too, from which the juice has been extracted,
may be put to some use when dried: powders,
6 for instance,
may be made from them, for the purpose of checking the perspiration. These powders are sprinkled on the body, upon
leaving the bath, and are left to dry on it, after which they are
washed off with cold water. The little excrescences
7 of
the wild rose, mixed with bears'-grease,
8 are a good remedy
for alopecy.