Prostrate trailing herbaceous perennials or undershrubs. Flowers usually racemose. Valves and placentas of the capsule 3. About thirty species are known. The name is derived from the sun, and a flower. Some species have dimorphic flowers, similar to the violet. They are only suitable for rock-work. Besides H. vulgare there are three other indigenous species : H. guttatum, an annual, flowers yellow with a red eye; H. canum and H. polifdlium, trailing shrubby species, the first with small yellow flowers, and the latter white,

1. II. Algarvense, syn. H. ocymoides. - This is an erect-growing species about 2 feet high, more like a Cistus, to which the commonly cultivated annual species, with white, lilac, purple, or crimson flowers.