Though quinces have an austere taste, and are not eatable when raw, they lose a considerable portion of their harshness if prepared in any manner by heat; and, when mixed with other fruit in cookery, they communicate a very pleasant flavour. Hence it is that they are often mixed with apples in pies. Quinces are also boiled and eaten with sugar; made into marmalade, and preserved in syrup either whole or in halves. The _juice_ of quinces, boiled with sugar, was formerly used as a medicine, but of late years it has been nearly discontinued. A proportion of one quart of the juice, mixed with a pound of sugar, and fermented, yields a delicious wine. On the Continent, a celebrated liqueur is prepared from this juice, in combination with sugar and brandy. A mucilage of the _seeds_ is kept by apothecaries, and used in medicine, as more pleasant, but it is not so efficacious, as that of the simple gums. Quince-trees grow wild on the banks of the Danube, but, with much less luxuriance than in a state of cultivation. POLYGYNIA. 164. _The HUNDRED LEAVED, or COMMON GARDEN ROSE_ (Rosa centifolia), _is a shrub too well known to need any description._ This, the queen of flowers, is one of the most elegant and fragrant of the vegetable productions. Its _petals_ yield, on distillation, a small portion of aromatic _oil_, together with a _water_ which possesses both the odour and taste of the flowers. This oil congeals in the common temperature of our atmosphere, and in that state is of white colour; but, when liquefied by heat, it appears yellow. So small, however, is the quantity that can be obtained, that an hundred pounds' weight of the flowers will scarcely yield half an ounce of oil. It is in much request as a perfume, under the name of _ottar_ or _essence of roses_; and, though chiefly manufactured in the East Indies, is seldom imported from thence for sale, but considerable quantities of it are brought from Turkey, at the price of from three to four pounds per ounce, exclusive of the duty. That from the East Indies, when genuine, has been sold at a much more exorbitant rate than this; but it is not unfrequently adulterated with oil of sandal-wood (55). The fraud, however, is easily detected by those who are accustomed to the smell of the latter, and also by the fluidity of the compound. The true ottar of roses is undoubtedly the most elegant perfume that is known. From the petals of this rose are also prepared a _conserve_ and _syrup_, which are used in medicine. The simple distilled _rose-water_ has little to recommend it beyond its fragrance: it is occasionally used to impart an agreeable flavour to culinary preparations, and also to some kinds of cordials. It should be remarked that, although, from their fragrance, roses are much used for nosegays, their odour has sometimes produced very alarming symptoms in persons sitting or sleeping with such nosegays in confined apartments.