ahs send over to Ghazipoor for its purchase. Most of the
rose water, as soon as distilled, is taken away, and after six
months from the termination of the manufacture there are not more
than four or five places where it is to be met with.

I should consider that the value of the roses sold for the
manufacture of rose water may be estimated at 15,000 to 20,000
rupees a year; and from the usual price asked for the rose water,
and for which it is sold, I should consider there is a profit of
40,000 rupees. The natives are very fond of using the rose water as
medicine, or as a vehicle for other mixtures, and they consume a
good deal of the petals for the conserve of roses, or goolcond as
they call it.

The roses of Ghazipoor, on the river Ganges, are cultivated in
enormous fields of hundreds of acres. The delightful odor from these
fields can be scented at seven miles distance on the river. The
valuable article of commerce known as attar of roses is made here in
the following manner:--On 40 pounds of roses are poured 60 pounds of
water, and they are then distilled over a slow fire, and 30 pounds
of rose water obtained. This rose water is then poured over 40
pounds of fresh roses, and from that is distilled at most 20 pounds
of rose water; this is then exposed to the cold night air, and in
the morning a small quantity of oil is found on the surface. From 80
pounds of roses, about 200,000, at the utmost an ounce and a-half of
oil is obtained; and even at Ghazipoor it costs 40 rupees (4_l._) an
ounce.

Five guineas have been often paid for one ounce of attar of roses.
The most approved mode of ascertaining its quality is to drop it on
a piece of paper; its strength is ascertained by the quickness with
which it evaporates, and its worth by its leaving no stains on the
paper. The best otto is manufactured at Constantinople.

A volatile oil, erroneously called oil of spikenard, is met with in
the shops, which is obtained from a plant which has been named by Dr.
Royle, the _Andropogon Calamus aromaticus._

The true spikenard of the ancients is supposed to have been obtained
from the _Nardostachys Jatamansi_, a plant of the Valerian family. Dr.
Stenhouse describes rather minutely ("Journal Pharm. Soc." vol. iv. p.
276) a species of East India grass oil, said to be the produce of
_Andropogon Ivaracusa_, which he be