320 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



Varieties. C. c. 2 crispdtus Dec. has the leaves waved or curled ; and C. c. 3 touricus Dec. has 

 the leaves flat, and very villous, on the under surface. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Leaves spathulate-ovate, tomentosely 

 hairy, wrinkled, tapered into the short footstalk, 

 waved on the margin. Peduncles 1-flowered. Sepals 

 villous. {Don's Mill., i. p. 298.) This species, Sweet 

 observes, resembles C. villosus and C. undulatus in 

 appearance, and is often confused with those species 

 in collections. In the nurseries, C. purpureus is 

 very often sold for it ; but the fine yellow spots at 

 the base of its petals readily distinguish it from that 

 species. It is a shrub, a native of Crete, Syria, and 

 Greece, growing to the height of 2 ft., and generally 

 requiring protection in the gardens about London ; 

 which as it does not often receive, it is, in conse- 

 quence, scarce. The gum ladanum is the produce of 

 this species. Dioscorides tells us that in his time 

 the gum that exuded from the glands of the leaves was obtained by driving 

 goats in among the shrubs, or by these animals naturally browsing upon 

 them, when the substance adhered to their hair and beards, whence it 

 was afterwards combed. This resin being at present collected to supply 

 an extended commerce, a peculiar instrument is employed for the purpose, 

 which is figured and described by Tournefort, and which is a kind of rake 

 with a double row of long leathern straps. ( See Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. iii. 

 fig. 21.) The following is the description of the mode of gathering the gum 

 given by Sieber in his Voyage to Crete : — "It was in the heat of the day, 

 and not a breath of wind stirring; circumstances necessary to the gathering 

 of ladanum. Seven or eight country fellows, in their shirts and drawers, 

 were brushing the plants with their whips ; the straps whereof, by rubbing 

 against the leaves of the shrub, licked up a sort of odoriferous glue, sticking 

 on the leaves ; this is a part of the nutritious juice of the plant, which 

 sweats through the texture of the leaves like a fatty dew, in shining drops, 

 as clear as turpentine. When the whips are sufficiently laden with 

 this grease, they take a knife and scrape it clean off the straps, and make 

 it up into a mass or cakes of different sizes : this is what comes to us 

 under the name of ladanum, or labdanum. A man who is diligent will 

 gather three pounds in a day, or more, which they sell for a crown on the 

 spot. This sort of work is rather unpleasant than laborious, because it 

 must be done in the sultry time of the day, and in the deadest calm ; 

 and yet the purest ladanum cannot be obtained free from filth, because 

 the winds of the preceding day have blown dust upon the shrubs." (Sie- 

 ber's Crete, as quoted in Murray's Encyc. of Geog., p. 835.) Formerly 

 ladanum was a good deal used in pharmacy, but at present it is compara- 

 tively neglected. In the west of Europe, a considerable quantity of it, how- 

 ever, is annually collected in Crete, and sent to Constantinople, where it is 

 chewed by the Turks, and used in various preparations of laudanum, 

 and for fumigating churches and mosques. 67 



*. 7. C. inca'nus L. The hoary Cistus, or Rock Rose. 



Lin. Sp., 737. ; Smith's Fl. Grac., 494. ; Don's Mill., 1. p. 298. ; 

 C. cymdsus Dec. ; Ciste cotonncux, Fr. ; be- 

 Swt. Cist., t. 44. ; and ourfig. 67. 



Spec. Char., $c. Leaves spathulate, tomentose, wrinkled* 

 somewhat 3-nerved, sessile, somewhat connate at the base, 

 upper ones narrower. Peduncles I — 3-flowered. (Don's 

 Mill.,\. p. 298.) A shrub, a native of Spain and France, 

 about Narbonne, and which has been in our gardens since 

 the time of Gerard. It grows to the height of 3ft., form- 

 ing a hoary bush, with reddish purple flowers, having the petals emarginate, 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 737. 



Cist., t. 44. 

 Synonymcs. C. albidus Hort. 



staubte Cistcn Rose, Ger. 

 Engravings. Bot. Mag., t. 43. 



