OF SHRUBS, MOSTLY EVERGREEN 39 



laurifolms. I envy those fortunate ones ; even as I write 

 my brain is filled with the hot, poignant fragrance of a 

 Mediterranean cliff, flogged by the full glare of midday, 

 till all the sweet plants, all grey lavenders, all straggling 

 thymes, all odorous, gummy Cistuses pant in thrills of 

 vertiginous sweetness. Ah me — 'AXt/Saroi? vrro Kevdficocri 

 yevoifjiav ! — if I may be forgiven this cri de coeur, as 

 thought of Cistus calls me back to the sun-bruised incense 

 of the shrubs above the Madonetta. (' Du Grec! 6 del! 

 du Grec ! II salt du Grec, ma sceur I '') 



My only hardy Cistuses, as a matter of fact, are lauri- 

 folms, florentinus, undulatus and lusitanicus. And all these 

 are so easy to grow that I need say nothing of their 

 culture. (Of course no one will plant them in shade.) 

 Laurifolms is only less gorgeous in bloom than ladani- 

 ferus — big, snowy, profuse in blossom, though the flowers 

 soon fall. The whole plant, too, exhales a delicious 

 scent of violets, which simply haunts the air, and cannot 

 be emphasised by squeezing or breaking. Florentinus is 

 a white-flowered hybrid, attractive, but much less so than 

 either laurifolius or hcsitanicus, which latter is, to my 

 taste, the most beautiful of all. It is similar in growth 

 to laurifolius (both are bigger plants than undulatus and 

 florentinus — this last, the child, I rather fancy, oiundulatus 

 and laurifolius), but rather frailer and more straggling. 

 The huge, fugacious flowers are snow white, but each of 

 the five petals is marked, at the base, with a round spot 

 of dark maroon. 



It is a far cry from Cistus ladanifenis, laurifolius, lusi- 

 tanicus, several feet in height and bulk, to the minute 

 Rock-roses, with their countless, reckless display of 

 brilliant flowers in every shade, from white to crimson. 

 But these, too, are to be ranked with Cistus ; their easi- 

 ness, hardiness, commonness, make it as unnecessary to 

 recommend them as it is inevitable to grow them, in any 



