LADANUM. 305 



wrinkled. Flowers abundantly produced in small cymes at the 

 extremities of the branches, Ih inches wide, stalked. Sepals 5, 

 leafy, very broadly ovate, suddenly narrowed to an acute apex, 

 strongly veined, hairy like the leaves, also with long hairs on the 

 back, margins membranous, imbricate in the bud. Petals 5, 

 roundish, imbricate, much crumpled in the bud, delicate, of a clear 

 purplish pink with a yellow base ; soon falling. The fruit is a 

 small capsule f inch long, ovate, acute, brown, furrowed, 5-valved. 

 Seeds numerous, orange-yellow, roundish, flattened. 



Var. j3, crisjmtus (D. C. Prodr., i., 264). Leaves waved or 



curled. Flowers purple. 

 Var. 7, Tauricus (D. C, Prodr. i., 264). Leaves flat, very 



villous on the under surface, as well as sepals. Flowers 



purple. [N'ative of Tauria. 



The leaves of all varieties are exceedingly viscid. The glandular 



structure of the short hairs is figured in Linger and Kotschy's 



work on Cyprus " Die Insel Cypern," p. 403.* The Cishcs 



ladaniferus and C. Ledon do not produce gum ladanum in such 



large quantities as G. Cretus. The collection of such an epidermal 



secretion from living plants is probably unique amongst the 



economic products of the vegetable kingdom. 



■ In Cyprus, ladanum (sometimes spelt " Labdanum,") is collected 



by the shepherds by combing it from the fleeces of the sheep, 



which become loaded with it while they are pasturing. In Crete, 



however, a special instrument called a Ladanisterion is used, a kind 



of double rake with leathern thongs instead of teeth, and used in 



the manner of a whip. The straps become quite cylindrical, aud 



rope-like when fully charged by the adhering resin, the bulk and 



weight of which is increased by the straps being rolled about in 



the sand. (As much as 72 per cent, of sand has been found in a 



sample.) The resin is ultimately scraped off the straps with a 



knife, and kneaded or moulded into cakes of different sizes and 



shapes. The work of collecting is rather unpleasant than laborious, 



because it must be done in the hottest season of the year, when 



the plants are most glutinous from being covered with this resinous 



exudation, and in the sultriest time of day when there is not a 



breath of wind stirring which might cause dust to be blown on to 



it, and yet the purest Ladanum is not free from dirt, because the 



* In that work the plant is referred to on pp. 336 and 393-410. 

 W 



