CISTUS. 223 



will be found in the Sylva Florifera; and for a 

 knowledge of the remainder of these beautiful plants 

 we must recommend the inspection of the botanical 

 works with coloured plates, since nothing short of 

 coloured drawings can give a just idea of their 

 numerous varieties and varied beauties. 



The Cistus appears to have been a favourite 

 flower even in the infancy of British gardening, 

 since Gerard has left us representations and descrip- 

 tions of no less than thirty-eight kinds that were 

 cultivated in the time of Queen Elizabeth. 



The generic name of these plants is of great 

 antiquity, since the fables of the Greeks inform us 

 that it was called Kt^ror, after a youth named 

 Cistus ; but naturalists suppose it to have been so 

 named from the seed being enclosed in a cisfa, or 

 capsule. Gesner, and several writers of his age, 

 classed the larger kinds amongst the roses, calling 

 them Rosa Alpina and Rosa Montana, Parkinson 

 writes of them under the title of Cistus, The Holly- 

 Rose. 



