The Rock Roses 



the stamens stand on the sepals. The Rock Roses are 

 indeed classified in the small family Cistacece, and they 

 have no representative in our native British flora, their 

 nearest and only close relatives being our four little 

 Rockcists (Helianthemuni). 



The flowers of this Laurel-leaved Cistus have three 

 sepals, and five great white petals, fragile and fleeting. 

 Then come close rings of some one hundred and eighty 

 yellow stamens, their heads set firmly on the end of 

 yellow filaments, each head darker in hue than its filament 

 and containing red-yellow pollen. These anther heads 

 open by slits lengthwise, and it is interesting to notice 

 that these slits only open for the pollen to escape in fine 

 dry weather; when the weather is bad they remain 

 closed. A Cistus flower does not willingly waste any 

 of its pollen, for this has a double function. It is, of 

 course, primarily for the fertilisation of the ovules; but 

 it is also produced in great quantity in these many 

 stamens to serve as a bait for insects, for the Cistus 

 offers no honey to lure them to it. Instead, pollen is 

 offered as food, and bees and beetles eat it with avidity, 

 and "it is no uncommon thing," as Kerner says, "to 

 find in a single Cistus or Rock Rose flower half a 

 dozen Dasytes (beetles) greedily devouring the pollen." 

 The cup-like, overlapping petals store any that falls, and 

 as the insects rummage about and pass from flower to 

 flower they naturally cross-fertilise the blossoms. 



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