1589.] CYTISUS LABURNUM. 275 



Query. — There is a plant called by Shakespeare Cuckoo -bud : 

 is there any plant in the English Flora now called by this name, 

 and what is it? S. B. 



CYTISUS LABUENUM, var. PURPUBASCENS. 



Reference was made to the peculiarities of this tree, p. 184, 

 which has come under our observation for the last twenty years. 

 No satisfactory physiological explanation illustrative of such re- 

 markable appearances has yet been given. We have seen branches 

 bearing racemes of the normal form of Cytisus Laburnum. In 

 some cases we have observed the side of a branch and side of a 

 raceme indorsed with the yellow flowers. From this there is 

 nothing to distinguish the tree from other plants, viz, the white- 

 flowering Currant, Ribes saitguineum, var. albidum, which has pre- 

 sented exactly a similar appearance. The Carnation, and other 

 florists' flowers, are well known among florists by what they term 

 sporting ; and fruits, as in the case of the Peach and Nectarine, 

 which have (to use the florists' phrase) sported upon the same 

 tree and also upon the same branch. But the most striking 

 phenomenon is the spontaneous production of the true form of 

 Cytisus purpureus, a dwarf-growing shrub (in addition to the 

 normal form of the Laburnum), a common plant in nurseries, 

 specifically distinct, which is generally grafted on the stem of the 

 common Laburnum for decorative purposes. Of the laws that 

 regulate varieties in the Vegetable Kingdom the writers and, I 

 may add, the readers of the ' Phytologist,' acknowledge with that 

 due caution which is taught us by the examination of plants in 

 their native habitats, viz. the circumstances under which they 

 are found relative to soil and situation, the efiect produced by 

 hybridizing and high cultivation, together with the more ex- 

 tensive development of individual organs, all direct us to the 

 desirableness of registering primary data as in the origin of the 

 plant in question, where and by whom introduced, and under 

 what circumstances, etc. To the practical botanist there is thus 

 a wide and useful field of investigation throughout the phsenero- 

 gamous and cryptogamic plants of our British Flora, together 

 with the more common plants placed under cultivation. 



We beg also to refer to what has been quoted by numerous 



