166 LADANUM. 
176. LADANUM, or LABDANUM, is a resinous drug 
which exudes, and is collected, from the leaves and branches of 
a beautiful species of cistus (Cistus Creticus), which grows in 
Syria and the Grecian islands. 
The height of this shrub seldom exceeds three or four feet. Its 
leaves, which stand in pairs on short foot-stalks, are oblong, 
wrinkled, rough, and clammy. The flowers appear in June 
and July, and consist of Jive large rounded petals of light 
purplish colour, each marked with a dark spot at the base. 
The ancient mode of collecting ladanum, if the ac- 
counts which have been stated respecting it may be 
credited, was not a little curious. Goats, which de- 
light in grazing upon the leaves and young branches of 
the shrubs that produce it, were turned loose into the 
plantation, and the resin that adhered to the long hair 
of their beards and thighs was afterwards detached by 
combing them. 
The present method is different, and is a laborious 
and troublesome employment. Tournefort informs us 
that he saw seven or eight country fellows, in their 
shirts and drawers, and in the hottest part of the day, 
drawing over the shrubs a kind of whip, or rake, with 
numerous long straps or thongs of leather. From these 
they collected the resin, by scraping it off with a kind 
of knife ; after which it was made into cakes of different 
sizes for sale. As loose sand generally adheres, in 
considerable quantity, to the viscous leaves of the 
shrub, it is not unusual for dealers in this drug to adul- 
terate it with sand. 
We import ladanum principally from the Levant 
and the Persian Gulf; and it comes to us in- cakes or 
masses of different size, dark colour, and about the 
consistence of soft plaster ; and also in rolls, lighter- 
coloured and much harder, which are twisted up so as 
somewhat to resemble the rolls of wax tapers. 
The smell of ladanum is strong, but not disagree- 
able ; and its taste is warm, aromatic, and somewhat 
unpleasant. This drug was formerly much used as an 
internal medicine ; but it is now employed only exter- 
nally) as an ingredient in plasters. 
