762 HELIANTHEMUM. LCLASS xm. ORDER I. 



downy erect footstalk, reflexed in fruit. Bractea linear, often absent 

 on tbe upper flowers. Calyx of five pieces, the two outer ones small, 

 lanceolate, the three inner ovate, with an acute point, thin, semi- 

 membranous, with prominent ribs, and mostly clothed with short close 

 fine pubescence. Stamens numerous, with linear filaments and 

 roundish two celled anthers. Style two or three times longer than the 

 ovarium, curved at the base, swollen upwards. Stigma obtuse. 

 Capsule roundish ovate, mostly clothed with short pubescence, three 

 valved, imperfectly three celled. Seeds numerous, roundish, dark 

 brown, almost black. 



Habitat. Frequent on dry banks and pastures. @. in mountainous 

 pastures, &c. y. Croydon, Surrey. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This is an extremely variable plant, especially in the size of the 

 leaves, which vary also remarkably in shape, from roundish ovate to 

 linear oblong; the upper surface is green, but smooth, or more or less 

 hairy ; the under side is green, and scattered over with star-like hairs, 

 or it is snow white, with the margins flat, or more or less recurved. 

 The flowers are yellow, pale straw colour, sometimes white, and by 

 cultivation rose coloured, or pink. It is very hardy, easy of propaga- 

 tion, and few, if any, plants are better suited either in the continuance 

 of their flowering, or the hardihood of their growth, or the variety and 

 beauty of their flowers for rock work or stony banks. The star-like 

 pubescence of the leaves is an extremely beautiful microscopic object, 

 and there is a curious irritability in the stamens of the fresh blown 

 flowers, which is best observed in tbe sunshine ; if they are then dis- 

 turbed with the point of a pin they shortly retire from the pistil, and 

 lie down in a spreading form upon tbe petals. This, it is stated by 

 Smith, was first pointed out to him by Dr. Hope, of Edinburgh. 



5. H. polifo'lium, Hook. (Fig. 867.) White Mountain Rock-rose. 

 Stem shrubby, procumbent, hoary ; leaves opposite, petiolated, ovate, 

 or oblong, the margins revolute, hoary ; stipules linear ; racemes ter- 

 minal, bracteated; calyx with the three inner pieces ovate, obtuse, 

 hoary, the ribs prominent, and margins membranous ; style bent at the 

 base, somewhat swollen upwards. 



Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 214. H. Apenninum.De 

 Cand. Prod. 1. p. 282. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 37. Cistus polifolius, 

 Linn. English Botany, t. 1322. English Flora, vol. iii. p. 27. 



Hoot branched, fibrous. Stems several, procumbent, mostly much 

 branched below, round, leafy, and hoary, with short close pressed down. 

 Leaves opposite, petiolated, ovate oblong, or linear oblong, greenish 

 above, with close pressed stellated down, and beneath hoary, almost 

 white, the margins more or less reflexed. Stipules linear, erect, less 

 downy than the leaves. Flowers in terminal racemes, mostly nume- 

 rous, white, or pale yellow, each on a round hoary pedicle, erect in 

 flower, reflexed in fruit. Bractea linear obtuse. Calyx in five unequal 



