1879.] ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS. 501 



has yet to be raised. Champion, about which we heard so much a year 

 or two ago, will not compare with it on any one desirable quality which 

 a Potato should possess. It is a very strong grower, however, and 

 demands ample room. 



Potatoes ought to be lifted and stored, in the way noticed above, 

 whenever the stems decay, from whatever cause — whether ripeness, 

 disease, or frost — as nothing but harm can come to them after the tops 

 are gone, or even going. In the case of those which are attacked with 

 disease, immediate lifting will often save a great number, which would 

 be destroyed were they allowed to stand. The disease commences in 

 the leaves, and does not spread to the tubers quite instantaneously, 

 although it does so, often in a few days. Gardener. 



ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS. 



cistus (the rock rose). 



Of the long list of species which compose this genus of beautiful 

 flowering evergreen shrubs, comparatively few have been found 

 sufficiently hardy for open-air cultivation in Britain, and even these 

 require the shelter of a wall to enable them to survive the rigours of 

 our ordinary winters. The great bulk of the sorts are indigenous to 

 the south of Europe, where they are widely distributed ; but a few 

 are found in Northern Asia, and on the African shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. Most of the species are of free growth in ordinary soils, pre- 

 ferring such as are light and well drained. They are all more or less 

 remarkable for the fugaciousness of their flowers, the corollas in most 

 cases expanding in the morning and falling off at sunset. As others, 

 however, come on in rapid succession and in great abundance, the 

 plants maintain their gay appearance for five or six weeks in summer. 

 This peculiarity is thus prettily alluded to by one of the poets, who 



says — 



" Yet though the gauzy hells fall fast, 



Long ere appears the evening crescent, 

 Another bloom succeeds the last, 

 As lovely and as evanescent." 



A resinous gum, which exudes from the leaves and youDg branches of 

 most of the species, notably from those of C. ladaniferus, and known 

 in commerce by the name of " labdanum," has a pleasant aromatic 

 fragrance, and is used medicinally in a variety of ways, particularly 

 in plasters, and by perfumers in the preparation of cosmetics. This 

 substance is said to have formerly been gathered from the beards of 

 the "goats, whereon it collected while they browsed on the plants." 



