22 POLYANDKIA— MONOGYNIA. Cistus. 

 260. CISTUS. Cistus. 



Linn. Gen. 2/1. Fl. Br. 572. Lam. t. A77 . Haller Hist. v. 2.2. 

 Helianthemum. Tourn. t. ] 28. Juss. 294. Gcertn. t.7^. 



Nat. Ord. Rotace(jC, Linn. 20. Cisti. Juss. 80. 



CaL inferior, of 5 unequal, concave, permanent, partly 

 membranous, leaves ; the 2 outermost larger or smaller 

 than the rest. Pet. 5, much larger than the calyx, equal, 

 spreadhig, roundish, with short claws. Filam. numerous, 

 capillary, shorter than the corolla. Anth. small, oval. 

 Gennefi superior, nearly globular. Stj^le undivided, va- 

 rious in length and direction. Stigma capitate. Caps, 

 angular, invested with the closed permanent calyx of 5, 

 10, or 3 more or less complete, cells, and as many valves ; 

 partitions from the centre of each valve, sometimes very 

 narrow. Seeds numerous, small, angular, attached to the 

 inner margin of each partition. 



Stem shrubby, or herbaceous. Leaves simple, opposite or 

 alternate, entire, with or without stipulas, mostly stalked, 

 more or less downy or hairy. Fl. stalked, generally 

 aggregate; terminal, yellow, white, or red, inodorous. 

 Stam. in some irritable. Caps, in the Cistus of Tourne- 

 fort and his followers, woody, of 5 or 10 cells, but no 

 central column ; in their Helianthemum more membra- 

 nous, of 1 or 3 cells, the partitions in several species not 

 broad enough to meet in the centre. 



Linnaeus remarks. Fund. Bot. sect. 170, that " there rarely 

 occurs a genus in which some part of the fructification 

 does not wander;" (prove uncertain in character, or not 

 strictly limited). Such is the case with the seed-vessel., 

 and in some measure with the calyx^ in Cistus. The latter 

 part always indeed consists of 3 inner and 2 outer leaves, 

 but this difference is most observable in the Helianthe- 

 mum tribe, whose 2 outer calyx- leaves are much the small- 

 est. The capsule moreover in this tribe has but 3 valves, 

 each with a central partition, as in every Cistus ; but in 

 some these partitions are not broad enough to make 3 

 perfect cells, whence Jussieu proposes a single-celled cap- 

 sule for the chief character of his Helianthemum ; but in 

 several species the separation is complete, and by this 

 rule we might as well subdivide Helianthemum, as sepa- 

 rate it from Cistus. Linnaeus had carefully considered 

 the question, and I think him most in the right. Schre- 



