health, and
conducive to their comfort.

The only rose I have ever seen them solicitous about is the old-fashioned
'hundred-leaf' or cabbage-rose'.[1] Where-ever a Mussulmaun population
congregate these are found planted in enclosed fields. In the month of
September, the rose trees are cut down to within eight inches of the
surface of the earth, and the cuttings carefully planted in a sheltered
situation for striking, to keep up a succession of young trees. By the
first or second week in December the earliest roses of the season are in
bloom on the new wood, which has made its way from the old stock in this
short period. Great care is taken in gathering the roses to preserve every
bud for a succession. A gardener in India is distressed when the Beeby
Sahibs[2] (English ladies) pluck roses, aware that buds and all are
sacrificed at once. I shall here give a brief account of the several
purposes to which the rose is applied.

Rose-water is distilled in most Mussulmaun families as a medicine and an
indispensable luxury. For medicine, it is administered in all cases of
indigestion and pains of the stomach or bowels,--the older the rose-water
the more effectual the remedy. I have been accustomed to see very old
rose-water administered in doses of a wine-glass full, repeated frequently,
in cases of cholera morbus and generally with good effect, when the
patient has applied the remedy in time and due care has been observed in
preventing the afflicted person from taking any other liquid until the
worst symptoms have subsided. This method of treatment may not accord with
the views of professional men generally; however, I only assert what I
have repeatedly seen, that it has been administered to many members of my
husband's family with the best possible effect. On one occasion, after
eating a hearty dinner, Meer Hadjee Shaah was attacked with cholera;
rose-water was administered, with a small portion of the stone called zahur
morah. In his agony, he complained of great thirst, when rose-water was
again handed to him, and continued at intervals of half-an-hour during the
day and part of the night. In the morning, the pain and symptoms had
greatly subsided; he was, notwithstanding, restrained from taking any
liquid or food for more than forty-eight hours, except occasionally a
little rose-water; and when his Native doctors permitted him to receive
nourishment, he was kept on very limited portions of arrow-root for
several days to