482 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



29, Dyer's Green-weed. Woad-waxen. Whin 



Genista tinctoria. — Fattiily, Pulse. Color, yellow. Leaves, 

 lance-shaped. 



Bushy plants, thornless, not without a certain bright beaut)^, 

 imported from Europe. To this genus belongs the common 

 broom of the old country. 



Eastern New York and Massachusetts, on hills. 



A " Scotch Broom," Cytisits scoparius, grows in the South, 4 or 

 5 feet high, a stiff, much-branched shrub with yellow flowers, sin- 

 gle or in pairs, forming leafy racemes on the upper branches. 



30, Wild Senna 



Cassia Marildndica. — Family, Pulse. Color, bright golden 

 yellow, growing paler. Leaves, compound, of 8 to 10 pairs of 

 oval leaflets. Tijue, July and August. 



The papilionaceous type of corolla is lost here. The 

 petals, 5 in number, are unequal, wide open and spreading, 

 large, made more conspicuous by the ten stamens of different 

 lengths, with their large dark- brown, almost black, anthers. 

 No tendrils or odd leaflets terminate the pinnate leaves. A 

 small club-shaped gland marks the joining of each leaf to the 

 main stem on the upper side of the leaf. The flowers termi- 

 nate the branches in short axillary racemes. The corolla 

 drops off easily, and a specimen gathered for the herbarium 

 must be quickly dried. It grows 3 to 4 or 5 feet high, a hand- 

 some herbaceous shrub, with long, slender, hairy pods^ 3 

 inches long, following the blossoms. 



Collected and dried, the pods and leaves form the American 

 senna, used in medicine. New England to Florida, and west- 

 ward. 



31. Rose Acacia. Bristly Locust 



Robfnia hfspida. — Family, Pulse. A shrub indigenous 

 south of Virginia, and cultivated in the Northern States. It 



