LADANUM. 303 



Cistus, or KLo-TT], a box or capsule, because of the remarkable shape 

 of the capsules.* The leaves of these shrubs are opposite, entire 

 or toothed, oblong or lanceolate. The flowers are large and showy, 

 resembling a single rose, but very evanescent, and not opening in 

 dull weather. Sepals 3 to 5. Petals white with a yellow or 

 purple blotch, or rose wdth a yellow spot at the base, never wholly 

 yellow, although that colour is very common among the Hclian- 

 tkemums. Capsule covered by the calyx, 5 or 10-valved with a 

 seminiferous partition in the middle of each valve, therefore 5 or 

 10-celled. Seeds ovate, angular. The genus is technically 

 distinguished from Hdiantkcmum by the number of valves of the 

 capsule, and by the flowers being cymose or solitary, seldom 

 racemose. 



The name of the nearly allied genus Helianthemuiii is con- 

 structed from the words rfXio^; (the sun) and av6o<; (a flower) because 

 the flov\-ers open with the rising of the sun in the morning, and 

 the petals fall off with the setting of the sun in the evening. The 

 flowers of both Heliaiithcmum and Cistus only last for a few^ hours 

 while the sun shines ; but if tlie weather is dull and the sun does 

 not make its appearance, the flowers do not open, and should they 

 remain unexpanded for several days together they will decay in 

 the bud. There are about 150 species of the genus Hdiantlieiimm' 



C. ladaniferus (Lin., Spec 737, Bot. Mag., t. 112. The writer 

 in Curtis' Botanical Magazine justly observes that "this is one of the 

 most ornamental hardy shrubs we possess ; at once pleasing to the 

 eye and grateful to the smell ; the whole plant in warm weather 

 exudes a sweet glutinous substance, which has a very strong- 

 balsamic scent, so as to perfume the air to a great distance." Its 

 blossoms, which appear in June and July in great profusion, 

 exhibit a remarkable instance of quickly-fading beauty, opening 

 and expanding to the morning sun, and before night strewing the 

 ground with their elegant remains ; as each succeeding day produces 

 new^ blossoms, this deciduous disposition of the petals, common to 

 the genus, is the less to be regretted. 



It is a native of Portugal, where it grows wild over leagues of 

 country. It is also common in Spain. Its leaves are almost 



* Tourn. inst., 259, t. 1.S6 ; Ga>rt. fruct., t. 76 ; D. C, FL, fr. iv., p. 8;i ; 

 , i., p. 263. Upwa 

 in Sweet's "Cistinese." 



