THE COMMON ROCK-ROSE— continued. 
X<x/xai, chamai, on the ground, and /a'crro?, kistos, the Cistus ; and this name was 
retained as a specific name for our commonest species by Philip Miller in the eighth 
edition of his “Gardener’s Dictionary” (1768). 
Philip Miller was born in 1691 and became, in 1722, gardener to the 
Apothecaries’ Company at Chelsea. Habituated to the use of Ray’s system of 
classification, he was reluctantly persuaded by Hudson and Sir William Watson to 
adopt that of Linnaeus. He was, says Dr. Pulteney, in his “ Biographical Sketches ” 
( i79°)> 
“ the only person I ever knew, who remembered to have seen Mr. Ray. 1 shall not easily forget the pleasure that enlightened 
his countenance, it so strongly expressed the Virgilium tantum vidi, when, in speaking of that revered man, he related to me 
that incident of his youth." 
Miller was only fourteen at the time of Ray’s death. In 1731 he published his 
“Gardener’s Dictionary,” that “gran’ wurrk,” as the Old Squire’s Scotch Gardener 
in Mrs. Ewing’s “ Mary’s Meadow ” termed it, and the eighth edition, that of 1768, 
was the last issued during his lifetime. Linnaeus, who visited the Chelsea garden in 
1736, and afterwards corresponded with Miller, styled it “ Non Lexicon Hortulanorum, 
sed Bolanicorum,” “ Not only the gardener’s, but the botanist’s dictionary.” 
The name Rock-rose belonged originally to the genus Cistus, whose blossoms are 
often about the size of those of a briar rose, from which they are generally 
distinguished by the coloured spot at the base of each petal. Such names as Little 
Sunflower, Sun-rose, and Sun-daisy have been proposed for Helianthemum ; but have not 
been generally adopted. They all of them serve to express the dependence of its 
blossoms upon sunshine for their expansion. 
The slight irritability of the stamens is of no very obvious utility. If touched, 
in some species, but only if pinched in H. Chamcecistus, they spread outwards towards 
the petals. The flowers are homogamous, but are freely visited by pollen-seeking 
insects, and set seed abundantly ; but some species produce apetalous flowers as 
well as the more conspicuous ones. 
In addition to H. Chamcecistus, which abounds on chalk and limestone hills, we 
have several rare species with hoary leaves, and one of these, the annual H. gutlalum 
Miller, recalls Cistus in having a red spot at the base of each petal ; but most of the 
beautiful forms which are among the most charming plants in our rock-gardens in 
summer are varieties of H. Chamcecistus. These have white, pink, saffron-coloured, 
or coppery-red flowers, which are sometimes double. They are readily propagated 
by division and grown in sandy soil, so that the calcareous nature of the original 
habitat does not seem essential. 
