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Beneath a wide plane-tree, with the cistus and the arbutus clustering round them, the living fountain before, the greensward beneath their feet; the gay cicada, once so dear to Athens, rising merrily ever and anon amidst the grass; the butterfly, beautiful emblem of the soul, dedicated to Psyche, and which has continued to furnish illustrations to the Christian bard, rich in the glowing colors caught from Sicilian skies, hovering about the sunny flowers, itself like a winged flower in this spot, and this scene, the brother and the sister sat together for the last time on earth.
One's delight in an elderberry bush overhanging the confused leafage of a hedgerow bank, as a more gladdening sight than the finest cistus or fuchsia spreading itself on the softest undulating turf, is an entirely unjustifiable preference to a nursery-gardener, or to any of those regulated minds who are free from the weakness of any attachment that does not rest on a demonstrable superiority of qualities.
North's paper-gardens The horologe of Flora The white petals of Helleborus niger become first red, and then change into a green calyx Berries of Menispernum intoxicate fish Effects of opium Frontispiece by Miss Crewe Petals of Cistus and Oenanthe continue but a few hours Method of collecting the gum from Cistus by leathern throngs Discovery of the Bark Foxglove how used in Dropsies
In spring, when peach and almond trees are in blossom, and when the roadside is starred with asphodels, this country is most beautiful in its gladness. The macchi blaze with cistus flowers of red and silver. Golden broom mixes with the dark purple of the great French lavender, and over the whole mass of blossom wave plumes of Mediterranean heath and sweet-scented yellow coronilla.
C. LAURIFOLIUS. Laurel-leaved Cistus. Spain, 1731. This is the hardiest species in cultivation, but, like the latter, is favourable to the milder parts of these islands, and especially maritime districts. Frequently it rises to 7 feet in height, and is then an object of great beauty, the large yellowish-white flowers showing well above the deep green Laurel-like leaves.
Geoffroy relates that the herb, gathered before the flowers have come forth, and boiled in water, imparts an acrid taste, penetrating and subtile like pepper; and that this decoction is an excellent vulnerary and diuretic. CISTUS ladanifetus. GUM CISTUS. The gum labdanum is procured from this shrub, and is its only produce used in medicine.
Set these in a little valley, framed by mountains whose rocks gleam out blue and purple colours such as pre-Raphaelites only dare attempt, shining out hard and weirdlike amongst the clumps of castor-oil plants, cistus, arbor vitæ, and many other evergreens, whose names, alas! I know not; the cistus is brown now, the rest all deep or brilliant green.
We were walking as we talked, and by this time had reached the brow of a wooded rise which commanded an uninterrupted prospect of the ocean. The flowery cistus flourished on the eminence, and cork-trees, chestnuts, and willows shielded us from the fierceness of the sun. Behind and around were a succession of richly-planted gardens.
Everywhere in spring the ground is carpeted with a profusion of wild-flowers, cistus and brown orchis, narcissus and the scarlet anemone; sometimes the forest scenery sweeps away, and leaves us among olive-grounds and orange-gardens arranged in formal, picturesque rows.
And Clara heartily agreed, for she could think of no greater joy in the world than to be strong and able to go about like other people, and no longer to have to lie from day to day in her invalid chair. They had not far to go to reach the field of flowers, and could already catch sight of the cistus flowers glowing gold in the sun.
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