50 THE NEW GARDENING 



that the flowers are of little beauty, but this cannot be 

 urged against the Rock Rose, for not many hardy plants 

 have more beautiful blossoms. There are few sites too 

 hot, few soils too poor, for 'the Cistus. Sites that in the 

 old days would be left unfurnished, such as arid banks, 

 will, under the new gardening, which fits plants to their 

 environment, and does not court failure by trying to 

 force on a particular site plants which are alien to it, be 

 made to blossom as the Rose. Aye, the Rose itself shall 

 help the Cistus, the Helianthemum and the Stonecrop ; 

 for, as we shall presently see when we deal with Roses, 

 the modern " Memorial " Roses are well adapted for 

 covering banks, and have remarkable interest and beauty. 

 I pick from my collection of Cistuses the names of a few 

 species which cannot but charm every grower. Cor- 

 bariensis is so old a plant that we can only find any 

 novelty about it in the way in which it is used. That, if 

 you please, shall be in cutting out the coarse tussocks 

 from yonder corner, setting in some rock, and putting 

 this exquisite plant amongst them. It is dwarf as Cistuses 

 go a foot high in a dry year on poor limestone, perhaps 

 two feet in a wet year on better soil. The flowers remind 

 us of those of a large white Japanese Anemone, but are 

 more cupped ; they are white, with a cluster of orange 

 anthers. Like the rest of the Cistuses, the flowers are 

 transient, or, to employ the botanist's word, fugacious ; 

 they last only a day, but into that brief period is crowded 

 an intensity of beauty which enshrines them in the 

 memory. And day by day in early summer fresh crops 

 of the lovely blossoms come. The Corbar Cistus is a 

 native of Spain and is classed by some as a form of 

 salvifolius. Cyprius resembles it in bloom, but is a much 

 larger plant. Ladaniferus, another of the taller species, is a 

 beautiful and popular Cistus, the white flowers of which are 



