102 KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 
recent flower, if suddenly pressed between the finger and thumb, ex- 
pand in a very remarkable manner), and the true Cis/uses of our gardens, 
distinguished by the beauty yet short duration of their flowers. One of 
the most common is the Gum-Cistus (Cistus ladaniferus, L.), so called 
because the whole plant, in warm weather, exudes a sweet, gummy, or 
glutinous substance, which has a strong balsamic scent, perfuming the 
circumambient air to a great distance. From the Latin specific name 
(Jadaniferus) it might be supposed that this species yields the Gum- 
Ladanum, or Labdanum, but such is not the case: several species have 
a similar resinous exudation. 
Ladanum, or Labdanum, a resin considered to be the product of 
Cistus Creticus, L. Native of Crete and Syria. Our specimens are 
from D. Hanbury, Esq. It possesses stimulant properties, and was 
formerly a constituent of some plasters, but its use is now obsolete, 
and it is seldom imported. It is the Ledon of Dioscorides, in whose 
time the gum, which exuded from the glands of the leaves, was obtained 
by driving goats among the shrubs, or by these animals naturally 
browsing upon them, when the substance adhered to their fleeces and 
beards. Now that this gum is collected to supply a more extended 
demand, a peculiar instrument is employed for the purpose, which is 
described and figured by Tournefort ; and his accuracy is attested by 
Sieber, in his * Voyage to Crete.’ “It is a kind of rake, with a double 
row of long leathern straps. It is used in the heat of the day, when 
not a breath of wind is stirring: circumstances necessary to the 
gathering of Ladanum. Seven or eight country-fellows, in their shirts 
and drawers, brush the plants with their whips, the straps whereof, by 
rubbing against the leaves, lick off a sort of odoriferous glue stick- 
. ing to the foliage. This is part of the nutritious juice of the plant, 
= which exudes through the texture of the leaves like a fatty dew, in 
shining drops, clear as turpentine. When the whips are sufficiently 
laden with this grease, they take a knife and scrape the. straps clean, 
making it up into a mass or cakes of different size, and this is what 
comes to us under the name of Ladanum, or Labdanum. A man who 
is diligent will gather 3 lbs. per day, or more, which sells for a crown 
on the spot. The work is rather unpleasant than laborious, because it 
must be done in the sultry time of the day, and during the most dead 
calm; and yet the purest Zadanum cannot be procured free from filth, 
because the winds of previous days have blown dust on the shrubs." 
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