316 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



produce. The caper is cultivated extensively in the neighbourhood of Tunis, 

 and exported both to America and Europe, In commerce, the buds are of 

 three different qualities, the nonpareil, the capucine, and the capotte. 

 M'CuUoch says, the best capers imported into Britain are from Toulon; some 

 small salt capers come from Majorca, and a few flat ones from about Lyons. 

 In the year 1832, 6213 lbs. were entered for home consumption. (Com. Diet.) 



The caper plant has, v/e believe, been introduced into Australia, and it is 

 highly probable that it would thrive particularly well in that dry and wai'm 

 climate ; as it would, doubtless, in the Himalaya, and in other parts of India. 

 For these I'easons, we have departed from the rule we laid down, p. 230., 

 which would have obliged us to print our account of this species, as being 

 only half-hardy, in small type. 



.* 2. C. Fontanel's// Dec. Desfontaines's Caper Bush. 



Identification. Dec. Prod., 1. p. 245. ; Don's Mill., 1. p. 279. 

 Synonymes. C. ovata Besf. Ft. Atl., 1. p. 404. ; Caprier oval, ¥r. 

 Engraving. Bocc. Sic, t. 42. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Stipules spinose, hooked. Leaves ovate, cordate at the base, acutish at the tip. 

 (Don's Mill., i. p. 279.) Flowers dull white. Fruit club-shaped. A deciduous bush, closely 

 resembling C. spinbsa, of which it is, in all probability, only a variety. It was found in Mauritania, 

 near Oran, in fissures of rocks, by M. Desfontaines, and it is also to be met with in Sicily, Italy, 

 Spain, and the states of Barbary. In the Nouveau Du Hamel it is stated that it differs from C. spinosa 

 in nothing but the forms of the leaves, which are oval-acuminate, while those of the other are 

 round. It appears to have been introduced into England in 1800, but we have not seen it. As it 

 is, doubtless, equally hardy with the other, it well merits a place against a conservative wall. 



From the habits common to the genus Capparis, and more especially from the principal part of 

 the plant which contains the vital power being under ground, it is not improbable that all the green- 

 house species might stand against a conservative wall with very little protection. One only is intro- 

 duced, namely C. ffigypta Lam., from Egypt; but there are described by De CandoUe, and by G. 

 Don : C. nepak'nsis Dec, from Nepal ; C. nummularia Dec, C. quiniflbra Dec, and C. umbellata 

 a. Br., from New Holland; C. canescens Banks, from New South Wales; C. heterac&ntha Z)ec., 

 and C. leucophylla Dec, from between Bagdad and Aleppo ; C. volkameri^s Dec, C. citrifblia Lam., 

 C. cXvxyticefolia Burch., C. oleiiides Burch., C. coriicea Burcfi., C. albitrunca Burch., which is a tree 

 16 ft. high, C. punctata Burch., and C. racembsa Dec, all from the Cape of Good Hope ; and C. 

 saligna Vahl, from Santa Cruz. 



CHAP. XI. 



OF THE HARDY AND HALF-HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE 

 ORDER CISTA^CE.a:. 



Distinctive Characteristics. Thalamiflorous. Sepals 5, incompletely whorled, 

 two of them being exterior. Petals 5, crumpled in aestivation, very fugitive. 

 Stamens numerous. Fruit capsular, usually 3-valved or 5-valved, occa- 

 sionally 10-valved ; either 1-celled, with parietal placentae in the middle of 

 the valves; or imperfectly 5-celled or 10-celled, with dissepiments proceeding 

 from the middle of the valves, and touching each other in the centre. Embryo 

 inverted. Properties balsamic. {Lindl. Introd. to N. S., and Key.) 



Description, History, Src The species are all low ornamental shrubs, sub- 

 evergreen or evergreen, most of them trailers, and only a few of them at- 

 taining the height of 3 ft. or 6 ft. They are natives of the south of Europe 

 and north of Africa, but are scarcely known in America or Asia. One or more 

 of the species of the Cistaceae have been known from the days of Hippocrates. 

 Linnaeus included the whole of what were known in his time under two 

 genera, Cistus and Hudson^; but a new arrangement was published by 

 Professor De CandoUe (Prod, i.), in 1824, which he had adopted from Dunal, 

 and this was followed by Sweet, in 1830, in his Cistinece ; and by G. Don, in 

 1831, in his edition of Miller's Dictionary. This arrangement we shall adopt 



