AlAs ORD. XXIV. Papilionacee. SPARTIUM SCOPARTUM. 
at the base, of unequal length, curled inwards, and furnished with 
oblong anther: the germen is flat, oblong, hairy, and supports 
aslender style, with an oblong stigma: the seeds are round, or 
somewhat kidney-shaped, and contained in a long cylindrical pod, 
like that of the garden pea. It is common in dry sandy pastures, 
and flowers in April and May. 
Linnzus, Bergius,* and several other writers, seem to have cen- 
founded the medicinal qualities of this plant with those of Genista 
tinctoria: the officinal Genista is however by the British Pharmaco- 
peeias considered to be the common Broom, of which the tops and 
seeds are directed for use. The tops and leaves of Broom have a 
nauseous bitter taste, which they impart by infusion both to water 
and spirit. They are commended for their purgative and diuretic 
. qualities, and have therefore been successfully employed in hy- 
dropic cases, of which particular instances are related by Mead* 
and others, to which we may add the following from Dr. Cullen: 
*«« Genista, though very little in use, I have inserted in my catalogue 
(of cathartics) from my own experience of it. I found it first in 
use among our common people ; but I have since prescribed it to 
some of my patients in the manner following: I order half an 
ounce of fresh Broom tops to be boiled in a pound of water till 
one half of this is consumed, and of this decoction I give two 
table-spoonfuls every hour till it operates by stool, or till the 
whole is taken. It seldom fails to operate both by stool and urine, 
and by repeating this exhibition every day, or every second day, 
some dropsies have been cured.”* The ashes of Broom have also 
been much used in dropsies, and principally on the authority of 
. ay both ey of G. tinctoria, ** Virtus: pellens, purgans, Usus: Hydrops;” 
lunnoticed. See M. M. Lin. p.170. Berg. p. 598. 
® Mon. & Prec. p. 138. where we are told that a patient by taking half a pint of 
a decoction of green Broom tops, with a spoonful of whole mustard seed, every 
morning and evening, was cured, after being tapped three times, and trying the 
-usual remedies given in dropsies. See also Méhring Act. N. C. vol. v. p. 32, 
© Mat. Med. vol. it. p. 534. 
