cistus

plural cistuses · plural cisti

1. A rockrose; a plant of the genus Cistus.

   drawing his huge ungainly form from the soft cushion of moss, where the daisies and golden cistus flowers had shut their eyes for the night

   1892, Emma Marshall, Bristol Bells

   3 more examples

   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.

   1876, John Richard Greene, Stray Studies from England and Italy

   There is as yet no evening-primrose to open suddenly, no cistus to drop its petals; but the May-flower knows the hour, and becomes more fragrant in the darkness, so that one can then often find it in the woods without aid from the eye.

   1861, Various, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 42, April, 1861

   If the court had its clustering noisettes, and fraxinellas, and sweetbriar, and great tall white lilies, the moorland had its little creeping scented rose, its straggling honeysuckle, and an abundance of yellow cistus; and here and there a gray rock cropped out of the ground, and over it the yellow stone-crop and scarlet-leaved crane's-bill grew luxuriantly.

   1851, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, The Moorland Cottage