88 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
angular branches. The small leaves are ternate, 
single and scattered, on short petioles, oblong, and 
(like the stem) of a dark-green colour. The stem is 
smooth and furrowed. 
No sight in early spring or summer is more pleasing 
than a mass of golden broom in flower making the 
air redolent with a scent of liquorice. The numerous 
large flowers are borne in the axils, being either single 
or in pairs, on short peduncles. The style is spiral. 
The black seeds are, as in other Leguminose, 
contained in flat, oblong pods or legumes along the 
border or sutures. They are downy, the valves when 
ripe curling up in a spiral setting free the seeds, 
which are hurled to a distance. 
Broom is often six feet or more in height, and 
affords an ample cover for birds, hence it is used in 
game coverts. The flowers are in bloom in April, 
May, and June. 
The flowers are explosive. There is no honey in 
the flower, but the short stamens explode and cover 
an insect visitor’s abdomen with pollen, then the 
longer stamens explode and cover the back of the 
insect. The bee forces down the ale and carina in 
clinging on, thrusts its head below the vexillum, the 
carina splitting down to the middle, and the short 
stamens spring out thus released, the pollen already 
deposited on the carina being forced up on the bee’s 
abdomen. As the carina splits further the longer 
stamens explode, after dehiscing previously, and the 
carina now lies folded back, and the style emerges, 
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