Cistus

“ What the log-fire lacks in cheerfulness it makes up in heat. It is wonderful how much warmth is sometimes given out by what appears to be a mere heap of ashes and dead wood.
We have already referred to the uses of certain kinds of heath in the manufacture of briar pipes, and of the use of cistus for heating baking-ovens. The amount of cistus used in baking bread is enormous. The shrub has light roots, and as it is much easier to pull the whole plant up than to cut it, it is usually completely uprooted. A hard-working woman can gather and bind from eight to fourteen bundles of cistus in a day. ”

“ The absence or presence of these organs, though generally an indication that plants belong to the same natural order and even genus, is not invariably so. Some species of Cistus have stipulas, others none, which is nearly the case with grasses. The stipula in this, one of the most distinct of all natural orders, is peculiar, consisting of an internal white membrane crowning the sheath of their leaf, and clasping the culm. See Phalaris canariensis, Engl. ”

“ All the plants belonging to the genera Cistus, the Rock-rose, and Helianthemum, the Sun-rose,276 have showy flowers, each having five petals, which are crumpled in the bud like those of the Poppy; they also resemble the petals of the Poppy tribe in falling almost as soon as they have expanded, as every one must have observed who has noticed the flowers of a Gum-Cistus. The calyx in both Cistus and Helianthemum generally consists of five sepals, two of which are larger and of a paler green than the others, and grow a little below them ”

“ The brushwood of Moréna consists over vast areas—many hundreds of square miles—of the gum-cistus, a sticky-leaved shrub that grows shoulder-high on the stoniest ground. Wherever a slightly more generous soil permits, the cistus is interspersed and thickened with rhododendron, brooms, myrtle, and a hundred cognate plants. On the richer slopes and dells there crowd together a matted jungle of lentisk and arbutus, white buck-thorn and holly, all intertwined with vicious prehensile briar and woodbine, together with heaths, genista, giant ferns, and gorse of a score of species. ”

“ The male Cistus that is most familiar vnto our Countrey, I meane that will best abide, is a small shrubby plant, growing seldome aboue three or foure foote high with vs, hauing many slender brittle wooddy branches, couered with a whitish barke, whereon are set many whitish greene leaues, long and somewhat narrow, crumpled or wrinckled as it were with veines, and somewhat hard in handling, especially the old ones ”

“ Few plants are more admired than the Cistus tribe; they have indeed one imperfection, their petals soon fall off: this however is the less to be regretted, as they in general have a great profusion of flower-buds, whence their loss is daily supplied. They are, for the most part, inhabitants of warm climates, and affect dry, sheltered, though not shady, situations. ”

“ They dislike bright sunshine, only expanding fully in shade or when the day is cloudy and inclined to be rainy. Close to them, rising to the wall's whole eleven feet of height, is a Cistus cyprius, bearing a quantity of large white bloom with a deep red spot at the base of each petal. ”

“ The gum cistus, the golden Genista and Cytisus, the heaths, and many other ornamental species had long since shed their petals, and had been succeeded by new comers, most of them with comparatively inconspicuous flowers. For the botanist, however, the fruit is often more important [347] than the flower, and the afternoon was not long enough to collect all the interesting species that presented themselves.
On June 14 Ball crossed the Strait from Tangier to Gibraltar in the ordinary small steamer. ”

“ E. Bornet, of Antibes, who has made numerous experiments in crossing the species of Cistus, but as not yet published the results, that, when any of these hybrids are fertile, they may be said to be, in regard to function, diœcious; "for the flowers are always sterile when the pistil is fertilised by pollen taken from the same flower or from flowers on the same plant. But they are often fertile if pollen be employed from a distinct individual of the same hybrid nature, or from a hybrid made by a reciprocal cross." ”

“ The Rock Rose (a Cistus) , grows commonly in our hilly pastures on a soil of chalk, or gravel, bearing clusters of large, bright, yellow flowers, from a small branching shrub. These flowers expand only in the sunshine, and have stamens which, if lightly touched, spread out, and lie down on the petals. The plant proves medicinally useful, particularly if grown in a soil containing magnesia. ”

“ All the species of Gum Cistus, or Rock Rose as they are very appropriately named, will be found to succeed best when planted in exalted positions, and among light, though rich, strong soil. They are easy of propagation. ”

“ Polyandria. Stamens numerous, inserted into the Receptacle.
1. Monogynia. The genera of this order are artificially distributed according to the number of their petals, but not so arranged in the body of the system. They form a numerous and various assemblage of handsome plants, but many are of a suspected quality. Among them are the Poppy, the Caper-shrub, the Sanguinaria canadensis, Curt. Mag. t., remarkable for its orange juice, like our Celandine, Engl. Bot. t.; also the beautiful genus Cistus with its copious but short-lived flowers, some of which (Engl. Bot. t.) have irritable stamens ”

“ Sie wächst in rauen Gegenden. Ihre Blätter adstringiren wie die des wilden Ölbaumes, sie wirken da, wo ein Adstringens notwendig ist, am meisten bei Geschwüren im Munde gekaut oder in der Abkochung als Mundwasser; getrunken befördern sie auch den Harn und die Periode.
Cistus 126. Περί Κίστου. Der Kistos, welchen Einige Kistharon oder Kissaron nennen, ist ein in steinigen Gegenden wachsender zweig- und blattreicher Strauch, nicht hoch, mit rundlichen, herben, rauen Blättern. Die männliche Blüte ist wie die der Granate, bei der weiblichen ist sie weiß. Sie hat zusammenziehende Kraft ”

“ Encystment, or at least a resting stage at full growth, is very characteristic, and frequently an excretion of granules takes place into the first-formed cyst, whereupon a second inner cyst is formed which may be followed by a third. These brood-cysts, in which multiple fission takes place, may be of two kinds, ordinary and resting, the latter being distinguished by a firm, and usually ornamented and cuticularized cell-wall, and only producing its zoo spores after an interval. ”

“ Unlike the heaths of the north of Europe, it was covered with a false show of fertility, displaying a variety of plants; among them several species of heath, one six feet high, and entirely covered with large red flowers, another, smaller indeed, but with flowers of a yet more lively red. Here, too, were the yellow-flowered cisti, and many other plants with blossoms of many hues, perfuming the air while they delighted the eye. ”

“ The head of the worm can sometimes be seen shining through as a whitish speck. The only symptoms are those of a slight irritation of the connective tissue and some difficulty in closing the lid; larger cysts dislocate the globe. The diagnosis has the rapid growth of the cystic tumour to support it; there is the possibility of its being mistaken for a foreign body (Kaldrovils718) . After division of the connective tissue capsule extraction is easily performed. It is most rare for the cysticercus to occur in the orbit. Suppuration of the cyst may have serious consequences for the eye. ”

“ In soil consisting of hard pan, cisterns in some parts of the country are built without brick walls, the walls of the excavation being simply cemented. I do not approve of such cheap construction, particularly where the cistern is located near a privy or cesspool. Pollution of cistern water is often due to the cracking of the cement lining. Overflows of cisterns should never be connected with a drain, sewer, or cesspool. Run the overflow into some surface ditch and provide the mouth with a fine wire screen, to exclude small animals. It is not recommended to build cisterns in cellars of houses. ”

“ This requires confirmation, but it is certain that only one individual comes out of the cysts, which originally contained two amœbæ.
Such cysts have been termed by some writers “reproductive,” evidently a misleading term, since no increase in numbers, but rather a decrease, results from the process. A better term is, perhaps, conjugation cyst.
In soil protozoa, then, three different modes of cyst formation obtain, and failure to make the distinction inevitably leads to confusion. ”

“ In other cases, also numerous, the organism passes into a quiescent state, and becomes surrounded with a more or less toughened cyst. The nucleus then disappears, and the contents of the cyst break up into a number of small bodies or spores. Eventually the cyst bursts, and the spores swarm forth. In the case of some active protozoa the minute creatures that swarm forth are more or less like the parent; but in the more sluggish kinds the minute forms are more active than the parent. Thus in the case of the gregarina, the minute spore-products are like small amœbæ ”

“ The retina is dragged forward from the neighbourhood of the ora serrata over the ciliary body, whilst elsewhere it is thrown into abundant folds and completely separated from its normal attachments. A pseudo-cystic condition is thus produced, the apparent cysts being formed by the elaborate folding of the membrane (Pl. III., Fig. 19, and Pl. V., Fig. 31) . These may be small and slit-like, or may be large and round, so simulating the appearance of true cysts. In front of the retinal mass, lens fragments and capsule are seen in a number of the specimens entangled in the scar-tissue. ”

“ There is often a prominent angle in the gills at their broadest diameter, not far from the stem, which gives to them, when the plants are young or middle age, a sinuate appearance. The spores are ferruginous brown, elliptical. Cystidia abruptly club-shaped, with a broad apiculus. The [Pg 151] stem is stuffed, later fistulose, even, fragile, striate often above the annulus. The stem is whitish or sometimes flesh color. The veil is whitish, large, frail, and sometimes breaks away from the stem and clings in shreds to the margin of the cap. ”

“ Flesh: with strong, pleasant but pungent smell, yellowish brown, soft in the cap, fibrous in the stem.
Spore-print: rich rust-brown.
Spores: medium-sized, pale brown under the microscope, smooth, ellipsoid, and 6-8 × 4 μm in size.
Marginal cystidia: spindle-shaped, hyaline, numerous.
Facial cystidia: flask-shaped with a small apical appendage and becoming rich yellow when immersed in solutions containing ammonia.
Habitat & Distribution: Common in clusters in woods, gardens or parks, on wood or at the base of the trunks of broad-leaved trees in summer and autumn. ”

“ In the case of free parasites, a well-developed cyst is secreted by the syzygy, which rotates and gradually becomes spherical. A thick, at first gelatinous, outer cyst-membrane (ectocyst) is laid down, and then a thin, but firm internal one (endocyst) . The cyst once formed, further development is quite independent of the host, and, in fact, often proceeds outside it. ”

“ They stand on an elevated stone step, so as to bring the cistern about mid-height of their body, and on the rough inclined level of its rim they slash and roll the clothes, or, opening them, flaunt them into the water, or gather them together, lifting their arms high above their heads, and always treating them with a violence which nothing but the coarsest material can resist. The air to which they chant their couplets is almost always a Campagna melody. ”

“ Flesh: white, thin, except immediately in the central area of the cap.
Spore-print: blackish-purple.
Spores: long, elongate-ellipsoid, large and about 13 × 5-8 μm in size, (12-15 × 7-9 μm) .
Marginal cystidia: elongate club-shaped to balloon-shaped, hyaline and thin-walled.
Facial cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Grows in clusters on rich ground, in gardens, on sides of newly prepared roads and central reservations of motor-ways, on path-sides, in cultivated fields and on rubbish dumps; it grows from spring to autumn and sometimes occurs in huge troops. ”

“ It is certainly not an important constituent of the cell wall in many. On the other hand, hemicellulose and gum-like substances have been identified in numerous organisms of this class as important constituents of the cell wall and of the capsule which is probably an outgrowth from the latter. Practically always associated with these substances are compounds containing nitrogen. One of these has been certainly identified as chitin or a closely similar substance. Chitin is the nitrogenous substance which enters largely into the composition of the hard parts of insects, spiders and crustaceans. ”

“ The youngest parasites appear to be round cells provided with a cuticle and a single nucleus. By repeated division of this nucleus the parasite becomes a multinucleate plasmodium. The cyst contents become divided into pansporoblasts in the centre, while the periphery contains the granular nuclei. The sporonts grow in size, and by repeated division form clusters of spores, a kind of a morula enclosed in a membrane. When ripe the cyst bursts and scatters its contents into the surrounding tissues. ”

“ In Cystopus, the spores are sub-globose, or somewhat angular, generated in a moniliform manner, and afterwards separating at the joints. The upper spore is always the oldest, continuous production of spores going on for some time at the base of the chain. Under favourable conditions of moisture, each of these spores, or conidia, as De Bary terms them, is capable of producing within itself a number of zoospores; [d] these ultimately burst the vesicle, move about by the aid of vibratile cilia, and at last settle down to germinate. ”