Tab. 8G61. 



CYTISUS RATISBONENSIS. 



Siberia to Central Europe. 



Leguminosae. Tribe Genisteae. 

 Cytisus, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 484. 



Cytisus ratisbonensis, Schaeff. Bot. Exped. (1760) tab. in lib. prim. ; Kerner 

 Abh. Pflanzengcst. Khma u. Boden, p. 15; Schneider, Laubhobk vol ii 



p. 50, figs. 32 k-o, 33 a-b ; Bean, Trees £ Shrubs, vol. i. p. 462; specie's a 

 caetens e grege C. Mrsuti, Linn., ramis novellis calyce legumineque sericeo- 

 pubescentibus distincta. 



Fruticidus ramis vetustis e basi prostrata adscendentibus novellis erectis 

 adpresse senceo-pubescentibus. Folia petiolata ; foliola obovato-oblon«a 

 yel obovata vel oblanceolata, supra glabra, subtus cinereo-sericeo. Flores 

 in ramis annotinis solitarii vel saepius 2-3-nati longe racemose dispositi, 

 1 6-2cm. longi. Calyx tubulosus, circiter 1 cm. longus, adpresse sericeus. 

 Corolla lutea, vexillo glabro saepe maculo rubro-brunnescente ornato 

 Jjeaumm lineari-oblongum, adpresse sericeum.— C. ratisbonensis, var. 

 vulgaris, Aschers. & Graebn. Syn. Mitt. Eur. Fl. vol. vi. Abt. ii p 324 

 C. lursutus, subsp. ratisbonensis, var. ratisbonensis, Briq. Etud. Cytis. Alp." 



A considerable interest attaches to the familiar and 

 long-established garden plant which forms the subject of 

 our illustration. Among the shrubby Brooms hardy with 

 us there are few more attractive than this one, which 

 has been in constant cultivation at Kew for at least 

 seventy years, probably for a much longer period, and is 

 still planted in quantity for the charming display which 

 it gives every year when in flower in early May. This 

 species appears to be the Cytisus figured at t. 308 of the 

 Botanical Eegister as C. bijtorus, where it is recorded as 

 having been introduced from Hungary by Mr. James 

 Gordon about 1760. The figure in question was based 

 on a plant grown in the Cambridge Botanic Garden and 

 agrees m all respects with typical C. ratisbonensis except 

 in the absence of the reddish-brown blotch usually present 

 on the standard of this species. The true C. biflorus, 

 l. Merit., which has been considered by Ascherson and 

 Graebner a variety of C\ ratisbonensis, has flowers which 

 are of a purer yellow and differs besides in its narrower 



May, 1916. 



