26 POLYANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Cistus. 



Mr. Lightfoot in his herbarium has noted the depressions on the 

 backs of the leaves, wiiich, with other marks, clearly determine 

 this as a species, though it has never been found but in Surrey. 



5. C. Helianthejmnn. Common Dwarf Cistus. 



Shrubby, procumbent, with fringed stipulas. Leaves el- 

 liptic-oblong ; white and downy beneath. Calyx-ribs 

 bristly ; its outer leaves lanceolate, fringed. 



C. Helianthemum. Linn. Sp. PI. 744. Willd.v.2. 1209. FL Br. 



575. Engl. Bot.v. 19. 1. 1321. Curt. Lond.fasc. 5. ^.36. Hook. 



Scot. 170. Fl. Dan. t. \0l. 

 C. n. 1033. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 3. 

 Helianthemum vulgare. Raii Si/n. 34\. 

 H. anglicum luteum vel album. Ger. Em. 1282./. 

 Chamaecistus vulgaris, flore luteo. Loes. Pruss. 43. t. 8. 

 Flos solis, seu Panaces chironium. Matth. Valgr. v. 2.103. f. 

 Panax chironium, sive Flos solis. Camer. Epit. 501./. 

 Hyssopus campestris. Trag. Hist. 221 ./. 



In hilly pastures, on a chalky or gravelly soil. 



Shrub. Juli/, August. 



Of a more dwarf habit than the last. Root woody, bearing many 

 procumbent, or slightly ascending, round, downy, simple, leafy 

 stems, each terminating in a simple downy cluster, of bright 

 yellow^ou;er5, expanding in sunshine only, when their stamens 

 if touched spread slowly, and lie down upon the petals. Brac- 

 teas lanceolate, smooth, fringed, one at the base of each flower- 

 stalk. These partial stalks are slender, hoary, various in direc- 

 tion, more reflexed as the fruit advances. Calyx smooth, or 

 scarcely at all downy, between the strong bristly ribs of its 3 

 larger reddish leaves ; the 2 outer leaves ten times smaller, 

 spreading, lanceolate, mostly acute, green, smooth on both sides, 

 their edges fringed with numerous bristly hairs. Germen glo- 

 bose, downy. Capsule with very narrow receptacles, or imper- 

 fect partitions. The leaves of this species vary in breadth, and 

 are more or less revolute j green above, besprinkled with a 

 few hairs ; densely downy, white, and hairy beneath. Their 

 usual form is linear-oblong, somewhat elliptical. Stipulas lan- 

 ceolate, acute, fringed, green on both sides, longer than the 

 footstalks. 



Ray says the flowers are very rarely white ; they are sometimes 

 double in gardens. This is a variable species, but less so than 

 authors make it. Few plants are more difficult to define than 

 the smaller kinds of Cistus. The roseus and mutahilis of Jacquin 

 surely differ from this, and numerous species of the south of Eu- 

 rope, and the Alps, require to be studied and compared by a skil- 

 ful and patient observer. 



