All the various' kinds of Ciftus are very great orna- 
ments to a garden; their flowers are produced in 
great plenty, which though but of a fhort duration, 
yet are fucceeded by frefh ones almoft every day for 
above two months fuccefiively; thefe flowers are 
many of them about the bignefs of a middling Role, 
but Angle, and of different colours ; the plants con- 
tinue their leaves all the year. 
Thefe plants are all of them, except the laft, hardy 
enough to live in the open air in England, unlefs in 
very fevere winters, which often deftroys many of 
them, fo that a plant or two of each fort may be kept 
in pots, and fheltered in winter, to preierve the 
kinds ; the reft may be intermixed with other fhrubs, 
where they will make a pretty diverflty ; and in fuch 
places where they are fheltered by other plants, they 
will endure the cold much better than, where they 
are fcattered fingly in the borders. Many of thefe 
plants will grow to the height of five or Ax feet, and 
will have large fpreading heads, provided they are 
permitted to grow uncut; but if they are ever 
trimmed, it fhouid be only fo much as to prevent their 
heads from growing too large for their ftems ; for 
whenever this happens, they are apt to fall on the 
ground, and appear unAghtly. 
Thefe fhrubs are propagated by feeds, and alfo from 
cuttings ; but the latter method is feldom pradfiled, 
unlefs for thofe forts which do not produce feeds in 
England ; thefe are the twelfth, feventeenth, and 
eighteenth forts ; all the others generally produce 
plenty of feeds, efpecially thofe plants which came 
from feeds; for thofe which are propagated by cuttings, 
are very fubjedt to become barren, which is alfo com- 
mon to many other plants. 
The feeds of thefe plants may be fown in the fpring 
upon a common border of light earth, where the 
plants will come up in Ax or feven weeks, and, if 
they are kept clear from weeds, and thinned where 
they are too clofe, they will grow eight or ten inches 
high the fame year ; but as thefe plants, when young, 
are liable to injury from hard fro ft, therefore they 
fhouid be tranfplanted when they are about an inch 
high, feme into fmall pots Ailed with light earth, 
that they may be removed into fhelter in winter, and 
the others into a warm border, at about Ax inches 
diftance each way ; thofe which are potted, muft be 
fet in a lhady Atuation till they have taken new root; 
and thofe planted in the border muft be ftiaded every 
day with mats till they are rooted, after which the 
latter will require no other care but to keep them 
clean from weeds till autumn, when they fhouid have 
hoops placed over them, that they may be covered 
in frofty weather ; thofe in the pots may be removed 
into an open Atuation, fo foon as they have taken 
new root, where they may remain till the end of Oc- 
tober, but during the fummer they muft be fhifted 
into larger pots, and be frequently watered ; the end 
of O&ober they fhouid be placed under a hot-bed 
frame to fereen them from the cold in winter, but, 
at all times, when the weather is mild, they fhouid 
be fully expofed to the open air, and only covered in 
frofts : with this management, the plants will thrive 
much better than when they are more tenderly 
treated. 
The above method is what the gardeners generally 
pra&ife ; but thofe who are defirous to have their 
plants come forward, fhouid fow the feeds on a mo- 
derate hot-bed in the fpring, which will bring up the 
plants very foon ; but thefe muft have plenty of air 
when they appear, otherwife they will draw up very 
weak ; when the plants are At to remove, they fhouid 
be each planted into a feparate fmall pot, and plunged 
Into a very moderate hot-bed, obferving to fhade 
them till they have taken frefh root ; then they muft 
have plenty of air admitted to them every day in good 
weather, to prevent their drawing up weak ; and by 
degrees they muft be hardened, fo as to be removed 
into the open air the beginning of June, and then 
they may be treated in the fame manner as is before 
direfted for the other feedling plants. By the bringing 
of the plants forward in the fpring in this method/ 
they will grow to the height of two feet, or more,- 
the Arft fummer, and have many lateral branches, fo 
will be ftrong enough to plant abroad the following 
fpring, and molt of them v/ill flower the fame fummer, 
whereas thofe which, are fown in the full ground, 
rarely flower till the year after ; nor v/ill they be fo 
ftrong, or capable to refill the cold of the fecond 
winter, as thofe which have been brought forward. 
In the fpring following, thefe plants may be turned 
out of the pots, with all the earth preferved to their 
roots, and planted in the places where they are to re- 
main (for they are bad plants to remove when grown 
old,) obferving to give them now and then a little 
water, until they have taken frefh. root ; after which 
time, they will require no 'farther care than to train 
them upright in the manner you would have them 
grow; but thofe plants which were at Arft planted 
into a border in the open ground, fhouid be arched 
over, and covered with mats in frofty weather, during 
the Arft winter, but may be tranfplanted abroad the 
fucceeding fpring. In removing of thefe plants, you 
fhouid be careful to preferve as much earth about 
the roots as you can ; and if the feafon fhouid prove 
hot and dry, you muft water and fhade them until 
they have taken frefh root, after which they v/ill re- 
quire no other culture than was before directed. 
Thefe plants may alfo be propagated by cuttings, 
which fhouid be planted in May or June, upon a bed 
of light earth, keeping them fhaded with mats, and 
frequently refrefhed with water, until they have taken 
root ; which will be in about two months time, when 
you may tranfplant them into pots Ailed with good 
frefh light earth, and they fhouid be fet in a fhady 
place until they have taken root, then they may be 
expofed to the open fun until October, when you 
fhouid remove them into fhelter the Arft winter ; but 
the fucceeding fpring you may plant them abroad, as 
was before directed for the feedling plants. 
The fourteenth and fifteenth forts are by much the 
moft beautiful of all thefe Ciftus’s ; the flowers, which 
are as big as a large Rofe, are of a fine white, with a 
deep purple fpot on the bottom of each leaf. Thefe 
plants alfo abound with a fweet glutinous liquor, 
which exfudes through the pores of the leaves in fo 
plentiful a manner in hot weather, that the furfaces 
of the leaves are covered therewith ; from this plant 
Clufius thinks might be gathered great quantities of 
the ladanum which is ufed in medicine, in the woods 
in Spain, where he faw vaft quantities of this ftirub 
growing. 
But it is from the ninth fort, which Monf. Tourne- 
fort fays, the Greeks, in the Archipelago, gather 
this fweet gum ; in the doing of which (Bellonius 
fays) they make ufe of an inftrument like a rake 
without teeth, which they call ergaftiri ; to this are 
tied many thongs of raw and untanned leather, which 
they rub gently on the bufhes that produce ladanum, 
fo that the liquid moifture may flick upon the thongs, 
after which they ferape it off with knives ; this is 
done in the hotteft time of the day, for which reafon 
the labour of gathering this ladanum is exceflive, and 
almoft intolerable, fince they are obliged to remain 
on the mountains for whole days together, in the very 
heat of fummer, or the dog days ; nor is there any 
perfon almoft that will undertake this labour, except 
the Greek monks. 
Monf. Tournefort alfo relates the fame in his travels, 
where he fays, that the fhrubs which produce the 
ladanum grow upon dry Tandy hillocks ; and that he 
obferved feveral country fellows in their fhirts and 
drawers, that were brufhing the fhrubs with their 
whips ; the ftraps whereof, by being drawn over the 
leaves of the plant, licked up a fort of odoriferous 
balfam flicking upon the leaves, which he fuppofes 
to be part of the nutritions juice of the plant, which 
exfudes through the pores of the leaves, where it re- 
mains like a fattifh dev/, in fhining drops as clear as 
turpentine. 
T t t 
When 
