aloe

Rose

The distilled water of Roses is good for the strengthening of the heart, and refreshing of the spirits, and likewise for all things that require a gentle cooling....

It mitigateth the pain of the eyes proceeding of a hot cause, bringeth sleep, which also the fresh roses themselves provoke through their sweet and pleasant smell....

It is profitable to make the belly loose and soluble, when as either there is no need of other stronger purgation, or that it is not fit and expedient to use it: for besides those excrements which stick to the bowels, or that in the first and nearest veins remain raw, phlegmatic, and now and then choleric, it purgeth no other excrements, unless it be mixed with certain other stronger medicines....

And they are put into all manner of counterpoisons and other like medicines, whether they be to be outwardly applied or to be inwardly taken, to which they give an effectual binding, and certain strengthening quality....

Honey of Roses ... is most excellent good for wounds, ulcers, issues, and generally for such things as have need to be cleansed and dried.

The oil doth mitigate all kinds of heat, and will not suffer inflammations or hot swellings to rise, and being risen it doth at the first assuage them....

The flowers or bloomings of Roses, that is to say, the yellow hairs and tips, do in like manner dry and bind, and that more effectually than of the leaves of the roses themselves: the same temperature the cups and beards be of; but seeing none of these have any sweet smell, they are not so profitable, nor so familiar or beneficial to mans nature....

The juice, infusion, or decoction of Roses, are to be reckoned among those medicines which are soft, gentle, loosing, opening and purging gently the belly, which may be taken at all times and in all places, of every kind or sex of people, both old and young, without danger or peril.

Gerard, p. 1263-4.

Jaume Saint-Hilaire, Traité des arbrisseaux.  Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

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