HELIANTHEMUM lig nosum.
Hard-wooded Sun-Rose.
Sect. III. Tuberaria. Supra fol. 18.
* Perennia, raro fruticosa; foliis omnibus exstipulatis, taulibus
basi pilosis supernè glabris, floribus paucis bracteatis subpaniculatis.
H. lignosum, caule tetragono fruticoso lignoso : cortice rugoso-
squamosa; ramis adscendentibus piloso-hispidis, foliis ovato-ob-
longis in petiolum desinentibus trinerviis piloso-hispidis scabris
canescentibus subtus nervosis supra sulcatis : floralibus sessilibus
glabris oblongo-lanceolatis superioribus alternis, pedicellis basi
bracteatis paucis subpaniculatis longitudine calycis, petalis obo-
vatis distinctis patentibus.
Helianthemum lignosum. Swt. hort. brit. add. p. 469. n. 88.
Stem shrubby, erect, very hard and ligneous, branching,
clothed with a hard brown rugged scaly bark,
sometimes cracking longitudinally, obtusely 4-sided,
here and there knotted where the branches have died
away: branches ascending, soon becoming hard and
woody, and appearing rugged from the persistent bases
of the decayed leaves, clothed with long bristly hairs.
Leaves crowded, opposite, oblongly ovate, acute, attenuated
at the base down the petiole, strongly 3-nerved
underneath, and deeply 3-cbannelled on the upper
side, clothed underneath with a dense white tomentum,
and the nerves with long spreading, white hairs; upper
side very rough when rubbed backward, and densely
covered with canescent decumbent bristly hairs, and
short down intermixed. Flowering branches ascending,
densely clothed with long villous hairs on the
lower part, the upper part smooth, and slightly glaucous
: leaves oh the lower part opposite, sessile, ovately
oblong, smooth on the upper side, and hairy underneath
: upper ones alternate, sessile, glaucous, smooth*,
N 2