Pink and white cistuses for colored Provence

Pink cistuses and white cistuses in flowery Provence, at any summer beginning

The period of June in Provence sees opening many specific flowers of the Mediterranean climate.
Among these the pink cistuses which form bouquets in colors pastels
with the pale green of them leaves and them pink petals, quite crumpled.

Definition of the term Cistus, of the dictionary of Agriculture of Barral and Sagnier of 1892

CISTUS. Genus of plants which gave its name to the family of Cistae, and which is a part of the monogynie Polyandry. Almost all the species are natural at the south of Europe, mainly in the parts of the country which line the pond of the Mediterranean Sea; the only one is native of the Cape of Good Hope.

The culture of these four species is easy in the departments of the South of France ; but they cannot support the cold of the winters in those situated in the North. Although they are of an elegant aspect, we rarely admit them within pleasure gardens; the major part of their bushes is going to serve to warm the oven either it is of use as feed to the cattle.

The industry takes advantage of some gum resin which produce the following species : the Cistus of Crete, ereticus C., very-bushy shrub, stocked with small oval, wrinkled, hairy leaves and with a mat green; Cistuses with bay leaves and ladanifere. as well as the Cistus of Cyprus, C. cyprius, which is only a variety holding these last two species. The nice-smelling substance spread on the leading heads and on the young leaves, which we smell of rather far the evening, is of a blackish red, and is called Ladanum.
The Greeks collect it by means of a sort of rake without teeth, to which are fixed several leather strips of equal length, arranged on a double row ; during the strong hot season and the quiet days, these strips are dragged on the bundles or the bushes of Cistuses. The ladanum settles on them, and it is collected by scraping strips with a knife; then it is arranged in breads. To increase the mass by it, it is molded with a blackish, very-fine sablon, which is on the scene.
In other localities, as at the time of Dioscoride, and even more formerly as in the time of Hérodote, the ladanum harvests not only with ropes or belts, but also carefully, by means of a wooden comb, the one who becomes attached to the beard, to the hairs of the neck, the thighs and the legs of the goats which graze ladaniferes Cistuses.
In Spain, we pick the leading heads and the leaves covered with this coniferous filler; they are thrown in some boiling water, where it floats, and it ' is removed without losing it. The ladanum is used on medicine; applied outside, it weakens, limits, solves; taken inside, it is tonic and astringent. II its use is recommended by some practitioners in diarrheas and the catarrhal affections, but under this report is declined well; the pharmacists let in him(it) to the composition of several of their preparations.