510 



C I S 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL 



C I S 



about four feet high, with hairy, glutinous, erect branches; 

 and long, narrow, hairy leaves, ending in points, deep green 

 on both sides, having a deep furrow made by the midrib on 

 their upper side ; the flowers are on long peduncles at the 

 ends of the branches, of a pale sulphur colour, and have 

 an acute bordered calix. It flowers at the same time with 

 the other ; and both plants are very handsome. 



7. Cistus Salvifolius ; Sage-leaved Cistus. Leaves ovate, 

 petioled, hirsute on both sides; stem slender, smooth, covered 

 with a brown bark, never rising more than three feet high, 

 and sending out many weak branches spreadinghorizontally ; 

 leaves obtuse, without veins, not so soft as in many other 

 species ; peduncles lateral, solitary, one-flowered , longer than 

 the leaves ; corolla white, and somewhat smaller than that 

 of the other Rock-Roses. It flowers from June to August. 

 Native of Italy, Sicily, Narbonne, Switzerland, and Carniola. 



8. Cistus Incanus ; Hoary Rock-Rose, or Rose-Cistus. 

 Leaves spatulate, tomentose, wrinkled, the lower connate at 

 the base and sheathing. Branches villose, whitish towards 

 the summit ; leaves opposite, sessile, oblong, a little cottony 

 on both sides, with three nerves at the base; flowers purple, 

 on simple peduncles ; petals heart-shaped. Native of Spain 

 and Narbonne. This also is a beautiful plant. 



9. Cistus Creticus : Cretan Ladaniferous Cistus. Leaves 

 spatulate-ovate, petioled, nerveless, rugged ; calices lanceo- 

 late. A foot and half high, sometimes more, branching, dif- 

 fused ; stem and branches round, and somewhat villose ; 

 leaves from broad stem-clasping, petioled, first spatulate, 

 then ovate or lanceolate, somewhat acute, wrinkled, some- 

 times waved, roughish, thickish, quite entire, viscid, closely 

 set on both sides and round the edge with white hairs of 

 different lengths, some simple, others branched or headed, 

 scarcely visible to the naked eye ; peduncles one-flowered, 

 terminating the last leafy twigs, erect, and villose ; calix vil- 

 lose, with ovate acuminate leaflets, nearly equal ; petals rose- 

 purple, without smell, very obscurely crenate, forming a co- 

 rolla an inch and half in diameter ; the whole of the stamina 

 are yellow ; germen hirsute, green ; capsule ovate, obtuse, 

 brown, hirsute with ash-coloured hairs, five-celled and five- 

 valved ; seeds smooth, rufous, angular. It flowers copiously 

 in June and July, and ripens seeds in September. Native of 

 the Levant, and remarkably handsome. It is from this spe- 

 cies of Cistus that the drug ladanum (or, as it is sometimes 

 spelt, labdanum) is procured; it is a kind of resin, which is 

 secreted from the leaves and other parts of the shrub, and is 

 scraped off by means of a kind of rake, which has numerous 

 leather thongs instead of teeth : this being drawn backwards 

 and forwards over the plant, collects the resin, which differs 

 in degrees of purity ; the best is in dark-coloured masses, 

 of the consistence of a soft plaster, growing still softer on 

 being handled ; it is, however, subject to many sophistications 

 from the more or less careful manner in which it is at first 

 collected, and from the fraudulent practices of those through 

 whose hands it afterwards passes. In England it is now 

 wholly confined to external use ; it is an ingredient in the 

 stomachic plaster of the London Pharmacopeia : it is also 

 used in modern practice in fumigations, its fragrant smell 

 having always introduced it into such preparations : some- 

 times it is used in troches, and in the Paris Pharmacopoeia 

 there is a pectoral troche in which a considerable quantity 

 of ladanum is united with musk and amber; in the old 

 German shops, a tincture of this drug is reserved for female 

 weaknesses, but it is unknown to us Ladanum being en- 

 tirely resinous, is not soluble in water, but readily gives out 

 its active matter to spirit of wine. 



10. Cistus Albidus ; H'hile-leaeed Cistus. Leaves ovate- 



lanceolate, tomentose, hoary, sessile, mostly three-nerved ; 

 calix not rough with hairs, the outer leaflets longer, the sides 

 reflex ; peduncles from the tops of the branches, many, 

 scarcely longer than the leaves ; petals purple, not emargi- 

 nate, somewhat crenate, flattish. Native of Narbonne and 

 Spain. This plant is very handsome. 



1 1 . Cistus Crispus ; Curl-leaved Cistus. Leaves lanceolate, 

 pubescent, three-nerved, waved ; branches weak, slender, 

 woody, spreading horizontally. This shrub is seldom more 

 than two or three feet in height ; the peduncles and culices 

 are covered with a thin wool ; the calices are lanceolate. 

 The corollas purple ; but, according to Mr. Miller, (who cul- 

 tivated it in 1731) white, coming out upon naked peduncles 

 from the wings of the leaves, in June and July, and succeeded 

 by ripe seeds in August and September. Native of Portugal. 



1"2. Cistus Ilalimifolius ; Sea Purslane-leaved CLstus. 

 Leaves lanceolate, hoary ; peduncles wand-like. It is an 

 upright shrub, three or four feet high ; branches round, 

 ash coloured, angular at top, the younger ones dotted with 

 yellow ; leaves petioled, opposite, lanceolate, very white, 

 scarcely soft, without veins, obtuse, flat, about an inch in 

 length ; peduncle terminating, compound, white ; partial 

 peduncles, below opposite, above alternate : there is a sessile 

 leaflet, narrower than those on the stem, at the base of the 

 peduncles and pedicels ; calicles erect, ovate, acute, some- 

 what rugged, having two outer leaflets minute and linear at 

 the base of the larger ones. Mr. Miller describes it as rising 

 four or five feet high, and branching from the ground so as 

 to form a large bush. The leaves on the lower part of the 

 branches have footstalks, but those at the top coalesce at 

 their base, and surround the stalk ; the peduncles are a foot 

 in length, naked, hairy, and put out two or four shorter 

 peduncles on the side, each supporting three or four flowers, 

 which are large, of a bright yellow colour, . but of short 

 duration, appearing in June and July. Native of Portugal. 

 There are two varieties, one with a slender stem, woody, and 

 three or four feet high, with many slender branches, and loose 

 bunches of a dirty sulphur-coloured flower, upon slender 

 peduncles, and appearing in June and July ; another three 

 feet in height ; peduncles naked ; flowers solitary, on naked 

 opposite pedicels ; corolla bright yellow, with a purple spot 

 near its base, appearing in June and July. This very beau- 

 tiful plant is the tenderest of all the European species, and 

 will hardly survive an English winter in the open air, unless 

 protected by other shrubs planted near it. 



13. Cistus Libanotis ; Rosemary-leaved Cistus. Leaves 

 linear, revolute ; flowers umbelled, yellow. This shrub 

 resembles Rosemary; stem naked, purplish ; peduncles ter- 

 minal, longer than the leaves, with a few yellow flowers. 

 Found in Spain. 



** Without Stipules, underslirulibi/. 



14. Cistus Umbellatus ; Umbelled Cistus. Procumbent: 

 leaves opposite, linear; flowers umbelled. Stems low, 

 trailing, woody, seldom branching, and not more than four 

 or five inches long ; leaves narrow and hoary ; flowers white, 

 in small clusters at the end of the stalks. It seldom continues 

 beyond two years. There are two varieties, one having erect 

 stems. Native of the south of France, and Spain. 



15. Cistus Ltevipes ; Climltr-li-nfeil Cixtus. Ascending : 

 leaves alternate, fascicled, filiform, smooth ; peduncles ; ra- 

 cemed; root woody, creeping very much; stems many, round, 

 becomingwoody; when young herbaceous,glaucous,branched, 

 diffused, .spreading hori/ontully or ascending, very few, c 

 The flowers are inodorous, in thin villose racemes at the 

 ends of the branches, on long smooth pedicels ; petals ovate, 

 yellow, obscurely crenulate at the end, a little longer thaw 



