The American Flora Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 Excerpt: ...several simple branches; the leaves are oblong, pointed, waved, rough, viscous, veined, and stand in pairs upon short foot-stalks, which are broad at the base, so as to nearly surround the younger branches; the Jlowers are produced in succession at the extremities of the branches, in June and July--they are large, of a purple-red color, marked with dark spots at the base of each petal, and stand on short peduncles; the calyx is divided into five large oval-pointed persistent segments, of which the two outermost are smallest; the corolla is composed of five petals, which are large, roundish, spreading, and readily fall off on being touched; the filaments are numerous, very short, slender, and supplied with simple anthers of an orange color; the germen is oval, and supports a short style, furnished with a flat circular stigma; the capsule is roundish, and contains many small orbicular seeds. This shrub, which is a native of Candia and some of the Islands of the Archipelago, was first cultivated in England by Mr. P. Miller, in the year 1731, and is now extended to most of the principal gardens throughout that country, although it is not as common as many other exotic species of this genus. Not only this plant, but most of its congeners, abound with a glutinous liquor, which in summer exudes upon their leaves. It is well known that the Cistus Cretitus is the species from which the officinal labdanum is collected. This is done by means of an instrument called Ergastiri, made in the form of a rake, to which several leathern thongs are affixed instead of teeth, and with which the leaves of the shrub are lightly brushed backwards and forwards, so that the flued labdanum may adhere to the leather, from which it is afterwards scraped off with knives, and formed into ...