50
HELIANTHEMUM formosum.
Beautiful Sun-Rose.
Sect. I. H alimium. Supra fol. 4.
** Stylo subnullo, stigmate magno.
H. formosum, caule frnticoso : ramis tomentoso-villosis canescent'i-
bus, foliis subpetiolatis obovato-lanceolatis tomentoso-villosis :
junioribus incanis, pedunculis calycibusque villosis, calycibus
trisepalis, petalis obcordatis valde imbricatis.
Helianthemum formosum. Dunal. ined. ex DC. pro d r.1. p. 268.
Swt. hort. brit. p. 34. n. 8.
Cistus formosus. Curt. bot. mag. 264. Willden. sp. pi. 2. p. 1188.
Pers. syn. 2. p . 75. Hort, Kew. ed. 2. v. 3. p. 306.
Stem shrubby, erect, much branched: branches erect
or spreading, thickly clothed with a close dense white
tomentum, and long hairs intermixed. Leaves opposite,
crossing, each other, very shortly petiolate or
scarcely sessile, ovate, or obovately lanceolate, obtuse,
underneath 3-nerved at the base, the nerves more or
less branched : young ones densely clothed with a close
white tomentum on both sides, and spreading villous
hairs intermixed; old leaves smoother and greener, the
hairs on them in stellate fascicles underneath, and
spreading on the upper side. Petioles very short, vil-
losely canescent. Flowers terminating the branches in
a paniculate cyme. Bractes leaf-like, concave, becoming
deciduous. Peduncles generally 3-flowered, vil-
losely tomentose. Pedicles and Calyx densely clothed
with a white tomentum, and long villous hairs intermixed
; amongst these are other straight rigid purple
hairs, which gives a brownish appearance. Calyx of
3 sepals, which are ovate, concave, tapering to a point,
with scariose membranaceous margins, tinged with red
on one side. Petals 5, obcordate, much imbricate, of a
o 2