THE CISTUS FAMILY. Ill 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 1. Common Lime-tree — {TiUa Europaa.) 

 Planted abundantly in parks and pleasure-grounds, and very beauti- 

 ful as an avenue or lawn tree. Fenelon makes it one of the ornaments 

 of the enchanted island of Calypso. The flowers, which appear in 

 July, are delightfully fragrant, and allure the bees in legions. 

 Curtis, iv. 020; E. B. ix. tilO ; Baxter, iv. 293. 



2. Bkoad-leaved Lime-tree — {T'dia grandifoUa.) 

 On the slope of the hill at Prestwich Wood, and near Ashton-upon- 

 Mersey church. Fl. June, July. 



E. B., Supp. ii. 2720. 



XIV.— THE CISTUS FAMILY. Cistdcece. 



Upright and shrubby for the most part, sometimes prostrate on the 

 ground, with wire-like, but woody stems. Leaves simple, entire, 

 never dotted, as in the St. John's- worts (which in several respects these 

 plants resemble) ; flowers regular, usually of great beauty, white, 

 yellow, or reddish, and very fleeting ; sepals three, equal, generally 

 with two small additional ones outside ; petals five, crumpled ; stamens 

 numerous, their filaments free at the base ; pistil single. 



Cistuses belong almost exclusively to the countries and islands 

 bathed by the Mediterranean, and number about 200 species. A few 

 are resinous and balsamic, as the delicious gum-cistus or C. Cypi-ms, 

 the lovehest of the family, the large white crumpled petals of which, 

 a deep crimson-purple spot at the base of each, strew the ground 

 almost before we can admire them. Five species grow wild in Eng- 

 land, chiefly afiecting the limestone districts ; one or two of them are 

 often planted upon rockeries, but none occur spontaneously nearer 

 Manchester than Buxton. 



XV.— THE CABBAGE FAMILY. OrucifercE or Brassicacece. 



Herbaceous plants, three inches to three feet high. Leaves simple, 

 alternate; often sessile, stem- clasping, and auricled ; stiU oftener 

 deeply pinnatifid, and seemingly pinnate, divided and undivided 



