CISTACEÆ. 331 
præfloration in the bud.' The petals, the same in number, are alter- 
nate, opposite, or in an intermediate position, sessile or nearly so, 
contorted in the bud ;* the whole forms a rosaceous corolla, which 
falls very soon after opening. The androceum is composed of an 
indefinite number of hypogynous stamens, with free filaments and 
anthers dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts, marginal or slightly 
introrse.‘ The free superior gynæceum is formed of a sessile one- 
celled ovary, with five parietal placentas superposed to the sepals, 
and more or less prominent in the interior of the cell’ Hach pla- 
centa bears an indefinite number of ovules, orthotropous or nearly 
so,° each provided with a more or less elongated funicle. The ovary 
is surmounted by a style of variable length, the summit being 
swollen and charged with stigmatic papille.’ The fruit, accompanied 
at its base by the persistent calyx, is a capsule which separates at 
maturity into five valves, and opens from above downwards by five 
clefts more or less prolonged. Each valve bears within upon the 
midrib a polyspermous placenta. ‘The seeds contain under their 
coats* a farinaceous or subcartilaginous albumen, surrounded by an 
excentric embryo, with radicle opposite the hilum, and cotyledons 
more or less large and flat, spirally rolled. The Cistuses proper’ are 
frutescent or suffrutescent plants, often bearing soft and viscous 
hairs. The leaves are generally opposite, principally in the lower 
parts of the plant, simple, entire, exstipulate. The flowers are ter- 
minal or solitary, or more usually grouped at the summit of the 
branches in few-flowered cymes; the corolla is pink or rather 
purple. 

1 The sepals 1 and 2 are quite exterior. The distinguished from these, and should not be 
three others, considered by some as the only 
sepals, are besides contorted at a certain age. 
Sometimes the calyx is accidentally formed of 
two series of three leaves each. 
2 Spacx admitted “ the petals never alternate 
with the sepals.’ Payer in the species observed 
by him, has seen, he says, an exact alternation. 
PLANCHON bas confirmed both the accounts, the 
latter being the less frequent. 
3 The direction of the twisting is often 
opposite in the corolla and calyx; but this is far 
from being constant. 
4 The pollen of the Cistaceæ which have been 
studied, is ellipsoidal with three folds, and in 
water spherical with three papille, (H. Mout, 
in Ann. Se. Nat., sér. 2, iii. 329.) 
5 Spacu has seen that the placentas adnate to 
the edge of the partitions “are very clearly 
confounded with them, 
5 The funicle is inserted either at the base of 
the ovule or at a greater or less height on 
the sides. The ovule “has a double coat. 
That of C. creticus has been described by J. 
G. Acarpu (Theor. Syst. Plant., t. 16, figs. 
17-19). 
7 ‘The style is a tube dilated towards its apex. 
The summits of the placentas spread over the 
interior of the tube in the form of narrow bands 
alternating with the ovary cells, and finish by 
dilating a little in as many stigmatiferous lobes. 
8 It is composed of three layers, the middle 
one being the least resistant and most coloured. 
9 Sect. Hucistus—Gen. Cistus SPACH, loc. 
cit., 367. This section should include the 
Erythrocistus of Duna, except C. symphyti- 
folius. 
