venting the early development of the blossoms. In France, where the plant has been much treated in this way, instances have occurred in which the woody stems have attained an inch in circumference.

3. R. fruticulósa (Shrubby Rocket).-Leaves all pinnate, waved, glaucous; calyx 5-parted; petals 5, 3-cleft, nearly equal. Plant biennial or perennial, This plant is not truly wild, but is occasionally found in waste places in Cornwall, Somersetshire, and other counties, and is planted in gardens. It flowers in June, and may be distinguished by its sea-green tint, and its 5-cleft flowers.

ORDER VIII.

CISTINEE-ROCK-ROSE TRIBE.

Sepals 5, the three inner ones twisted spirally while in bud; petals 5, twisted when in bud, in a direction contrary to the sepals, soon falling off; stamens numerous; ovary single, 1 or many-celled; style and stigma simple; capsule 3, 5, or rarely 10-valved. The plants of this order are chiefly shrubby, but sometimes herbaceous, with undivided leaves, and yellow, red, purple, or white flowers, which are peculiarly ephemeral in their nature. Many of the species are exceedingly ornamental to gardens, for though falling off after one day's bloom, yet the buds are so thickly crowded on the shrubs, that on the next day the boughs are again covered with a magnificent produce of expanded flowers. Several of the herbaceous species are also planted in clumps on the garden beds. On the rocks of Greece, as well as those of Palestine, the Cistus shrubs are very abundant, and all the genera abound most on dry and elevated spots, some of them being natives of almost all the countries of the world. The balsam called Ladanum, which is so much used as a perfume in Greece and in oriental countries, and which is prized for its tonic and stomachic properties, is produced by the Cistus Creticus. Southey has described the fragrance of the Cistus plants:

"The forest or the lonely heath wide spread,
Where Cistus shrubs sole seen, exhaled at noon
Their fine balsamic odour all around,

Strew'd with their blossoms, frail as beautiful,
The thirsty soil at eve; and when the sun
Relumed the gladden'd earth, opening anew
Their stores exuberant, prodigal as frail,
Whiten'd again the wilderness."

1. HELIANTHEMUM (Rock-rose).—Sepals 5, the two outer either smaller or wanting; petals 5; stamens numerous; capsule 3-valved. Named from the Greek helios, the sun, and anthos, a flower, because the flowers expand in the sunshine.

1. HELIANTHEMUM (Rock-rose).

1. H. vulgáre (Common Rock-rose).-Stem shrubby, prostrate; leaves with fringed stipules, opposite, oblong, green above, hoary beneath; calyx of five leaves, the two outer very small and fringed; seeds black. Plant perennial. Any one used to roam over the chalky or gravelly soils of this country must have often seen, early in spring and late in autumn, the prostrate branches of this Rock-rose, covered with their leaves. In spring these are of a tender verdant tint; but late in the year they are rigid, of a dark myrtle-colour, and shine with the deepest green hue on the reddened leaf-stems. When the sunshine of July pours down on the grassy slopes, and tinges their sides with its gleams, the clumps of brilliant yellow flowers are bright, as if the sun had turned them into gold. They are truly, as the ancients called them, Beauties of the Sun, or, as some country people term them, Sun-Roses; never opening save when skies are

bright, and never lingering on till the late autumnal season. Their petals are crumpled and fragile, and the little unblown buds are very pretty, standing by thousands as they do among the grass on a cloudy day, waiting for the morrow's sun. The stamens are very sensitive, and if only touched by the wing of an insect or the point of a needle, they all lie down on the petals. They are long before they resume their erect position, and in some cases appear not to do so at all. The bees seem very fond of these flowers, flying from one clump to another, with their deep joyous humming, passing by their favourite wild thyme, to rob the cistus flower, which first invited them; for by some strange instinct these sagacious insects keep throughout the morning to the same kind of blossom as that from which they first gathered the honey, and never mingle the sweets of the thyme and the cistus.

Many writers on the flowers of Scripture consider that a variety of this Rockrose is the plant alluded to in the Canticles, as the Rose of Sharon. It does not appear that the Hebrew word, Chabazzeleth, which our translators have rendered by "rose," is ever applied to that flower; and as the plains of Sharon are full of the red variety of the Cistus, it is reasonable to suppose that this may be intended. The subject has been well investigated by learned and judicious botanists; but whether this pretty Cistus, the Asphodel, the true Rose, or the Narcissus, is the flower alluded to, cannot be fully ascertained.

2. H. cánum (Hoary Dwarf Rock-rose).—Shrubby, without stipules; leaves opposite, egg-shaped or oblong, hoary beneath; racemes of flowers terminal. Plant perennial. This very rare plant is truly alpine in its place of growth, and occurs in the north of England and in Wales. Its flowers are small and yellow, blossoming from May till July. The leaves are quite grey with down.

3. H. guttátum (Spotted Annual Rock-rose).-Stems erect; leaves long and narrow, the lower ones opposite and without stipules, the upper ones alternate. This very rare plant has but two recorded British habitats, and both are in Ireland. It flowers from June to September. It is a common species in France, Italy, Portugal, and Turkey; and is found, but rarely, in Jersey. Its flowers are yellow, with a deep-red spot at the base of the petals.

4. H. ledifólium (Ledum-leaved Rock-rose).-Stem herbaceous, slightly downy, with stipules; leaves lance-shaped; flower-stalks solitary, opposite to the leaves; capsule smooth and shining. Plant perennial. This Cistus was described by Hudson, as growing on Brean Downs, in Somersetshire, but it is probably not a native of Britain.

5. H. polifólium (White Rock-rose).-Shrubby, procumbent, stipuled, hoary; leaves oblong, more or less rolled under at the margin; racemes solitary, terminal. Plant perennial. This white-flowered Cistus is very rare, and is by many botanists thought to be a variety of the Common Rock-rose, which, as we may see in our gardens, exhibits under culture tints of all hues of red, yellow, and white. This plant has been gathered in several parts of the south of England, as at Torquay, Babbicombe, and other places; and many a botanist of these neighbourhoods goes forth to seek its blossoms in July, reminding one of Wordsworth's words:

Then, keen and eager as a fine-nosed hound,
By soul-engrossing instinct driven along
Through wood or open field, the harmless man
Departs intent upon his onward quest !
No flow'ret blooms

Throughout the lofty range of these rough hills,

Or in the woods, that could from him conceal
Its birth-place!"

ORDER IX. VIOLACEE-VIOLET TRIBE.

Sepals 5; petals 5, sometimes unequal; stamens 5; anthers lengthened into a flat membrane; style with an oblique hooded stigma; ovary 1-celled; seeds numerous, in three rows. This order, which consists chiefly of the Violet genus, contains many favourite flowers of the gardener. The greater number of the tribe are hardy herbaceous plants, some remarkable for their fragrance, others for their beautiful colours; but few are shrubs. They are found in most parts of the world, often occupying very elevated situations; but they are entirely absent from the countries of Tropical Asia. The plants of this order which occur in temperate regions are generally herbaceous, but in South America the species are mostly shrubs. Their medicinal properties are found chiefly in the roots, which appear in all the violets to possess emetic properties in a greater or less degree. One of the Ipecacuanhas, so valuable as a medicine, is the root of a Brazilian violet; and several of the shrubby Violacea of Brazil are plants of great interest.

1. VIOLA (Violet).-Sepals 5, extended at the base; petals 5, unequal, the lower one lengthened into a hollow spur beneath; anthers united into a tube, the two lower ones furnished with spurs, which are inclosed within the spur of the corolla; capsule with three valves. Viola was the Latin name of some fragrant flower called Ion by the Greeks.

1. VíOLA (Violet).

*Leaves and flowers all springing directly from the root.

1. V. hírta (Hairy Violet).-Leaves heart-shaped, hairy, as are also the leafstalks and capsules; bracts below the middle of the flower-stalks; sepals obtuse; lateral petals usually with a hairy central line. Plant perennial. This violet, more than any other species, resembles that favourite flower, the sweet-scented wood-violet; but its blue tint is darker and duller, and it has not creeping shoots. The rough hairs which beset the leaf-stalks and leaves, and the total want of the sweet scent of that violet, are also obvious distinctions. It blossoms in April, and is occasionally pale blue or white. It is not unfrequent in English woods and pastures, preferring a chalky or limestone soil, and thriving especially near the sea; but it is a rare plant in Scotland, and found only in Dumfriesshire, and in the eastern parts of the country. The flowers of this, as well as of some other species, are often destitute of petals.

2. V. odoráta (Sweet Violet).-Leaves heart-shaped, slightly downy, especially beneath; bracts above the middle of the flower-stalks; sepals obtuse; lateral petals with a hairy central line; scions creeping. Spring violets! What lover of the country is not gladdened by their coming, and is not willing to search again for their buds among the dark-green leaves, as he did in his childhood? What wonder that poets have made them symbolic of beauty and virtue, from the old Arab bards and the Provençals of later years, and the Eastern minstrel who sings of the violet-tinted eyelid, to him who in our days compares the eye to the violet dropping dew, or the secluded maiden to the

"Violet by the mossy stone, half hidden from the eye!"