CISTINE7E. 91 



VIII. THE CISTUS FAMILY. CISTINE^]. 



Shrubs or herbs, with opposite, or in a few exotic species, al- 

 ternate leaves, with or without stipules ; the flowers in terminal 

 racemes. Sepals 3, nearly equal, overlapping each other in the 

 bud, with or without 2 smaller outer ones. Petals 5, or rarely- 

 fewer, broadly spreading. Stamens numerous, hypogynous, and 

 free. Ovary and style single. Capsule 1-celled, or incompletely 

 divided into several cells, opening in 3, 5, or 10 valves, which bear 

 along their centre as many placentas or imperfect partitions. 

 Seeds several, the embryo curved, imbedded in albumen. 



A small Order spread chiefly over southern and western Europe and 

 northern Africa, with a few American species. It corresponds with 

 the old Linnean genus Cistus, which is now limited to the large-flowered 

 species with 5 valves to the capsule. They are none of them British, 

 but include the well-known Gum-Cistuses of our gardens. 



I. ROCKCIST. HELIANTHEMUM. 



Low or diffuse undershrubs or herbs, with the flowers smaller than 

 in the true Cistuses, and the capsule opening in 3 valves only. The 

 leaves in the British species are all opposite, and the two outer sepals 

 very seldom wanting. 



The geographical range is the same as that of the family. 



Erect annual 1. Spotted R. 



Diffuse, much branched undershrubs. 



No stipules to the leaves (flowers small) 2. Hoary R. 



A pair of stipules at the base of each leaf. 



Leaves green above, nearly flat. Elowers usually yellow 3. Common R. 

 Leaves whitish on both sides, the edges rolled back. 



Flowers always white 4. White R. 



1. Spotted Rockcist. Helianthemum guttatum, Mill. 

 (Fig. 115.) 



(Cistus, Eng. Bot. t. 544.) 



An erect, hairy annual, often branched at the base, from a few inches 

 to near a foot high. Leaves narrow-oblong or lanceolate, or the lower 

 ones obovate and very obtuse ; the upper ones more pointed, and often 

 accompanied by stipules, which are wanting to the lower ones. Ha- 



