CHAP. XLI. LEGUMINA‘CE®. CY’TISUS. 589 
Description, §c. The species are generally deciduous shrubs, but two of 
them are low trees; all have trifoliolate leaves, and the flowers are for the most 
part yellow. The shrubs have the habit of Genista or of Spartium, to both 
which genera they are nearly allied. All the species are ornamental, some of 
them eminently so; and those which have their flowers in terminal racemes 
are decidedly more elegant than those which have them in close terminal, or 
in axillary heads. The wood of the laburnum is valuable in turnery and cabinet- 
work. All the species produce seeds in abundance, by which they are almost 
exclusively propagated. The species recorded in books are numerous ; but, if 
they were all brought together, and cultivated in the same garden, we ques- 
tion much if a tithe of them would be found specifically distinct. The ancients 
held the cytisus in great estimation; and, according to Pliny, Aristomachus of 
Athens, and Amphilochus, wrote treatises on it, which are lost. Much is said 
on this subject by Columella and Pliny, who have given ample details on the 
culture and uses of the cytisus; but their description of the plant is so 
indefinite, that modern naturalists are scarcely agreed as to which species was 
meant. In England, Switzer, and, in France, M. Amoureux, have written 
treatises to prove that the cytisus of the ancients was the Medicago arborea of 
Lin., the lucerne en arbre of the modern French, and this is at present the 
general opinion. (See Medicago.) 
§ i. Alburndides Dec. 
Derivation. From the word alburnum, signifying the white inner sap-wood of trees ; and applied to 
this section from the flowers of the species being white. 
Sect. Char, Calyx campanulate. Pod ]—4-seeded, not dilated at the upper 
suture. Flowers white. Leaves very few. Branches unarmed. (Dec. 
Prod., ii. p. 153.) 
% 1. C.a’LBus Link. The white Cytisus, or Portugal Broom. 
Identification. Link Enum., 2. p. 241.; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 153.; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 154. 
Synonymes. Genista alba Lam. Dict., 2. p. 623. ; Spartium album Desf, Fi. Ail., 2. p. 132.; Spartium 
multiflirum dt. Hort, Kew., 3. p.11.; Spartium dispérmum Meench Meth., p. 130. ; Genista mul- 
tifldra N. Du Ham., 2. p.76.; Spartium a Fleurs blanches, Fr.; weisse Pfriemen, Ger. 
Engravings. N. Du Ham., 2, t. 23 ; and our fig. 282, 
Spec. Char., §c. Branches terete, twiggy. Leaves simple, 
and trifoliolate, sessile. Leaflets linear-oblong, silky. 
Flowers in fascicles, disposed in long racemes. Legume 
2-seeded, very villous. ( Don’s Mill.,ii. p. 154.) A very 
handsome shrub, more especially when covered with its 
white flowers in May, and when surrounded by hun- 
dreds of bees, busily occupied in extracting their honey. 
It is a native of Portugal and the Levant, and was in- * 
troduced in 1752; since when it has been very generally 
cultivated. In good soil, it is of very rapid growth, at- 
taining the height of 5 ft. or 6 ft. in 3 or 4 years, and, in 
6 or 8 years, growing as high as 15 ft., or even 20 ft., if in 
a sheltered situation. Placed by itself on a lawn, it 
forms a singularly ornamental plant, even when not in 
flower, by the varied disposition and tufting of its twiggy 
thread-like branches. When in flower, it is one of the 
finest ornaments of the garden. Trained to a single 
stem, its effect is increased; and, grafted on the la- 
burnum, a common practice about Paris, it forms a 
very remarkable combination of beauty and singularity. 
Plants are so easily raised from seeds, that they are 
sold in the British nurseries at very moderate prices: in 
London, from 5s. to 12s. per hundred, and seeds 10s. 
per lb. At Bollwyller, and in New York, it is a green- 
house plant. 


