CHAP. XLI. 



LEGUMINA'CEiE. CY'TISUS. 



589 



Description, Src The species are generally deciduous shrubs, but two of 

 them are low trees ; all have trifoliolate leaves, and the flowers are for the most 

 partjellow. The shrubs have the habit of Genista or of i'partium, 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. AH 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. Alhurnoides 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 1 — 4-seeded, not dilated at the upper 

 suture. Flowers white. Leaves very few. Branches unarmed. (Dec 

 Prorf., ii. p. 153.) 



aft 1, C. a'lbus Link. The white Cytisus, or Portugal Broom. 



Identification. Link Enuni., 2. p. 241. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 153. ; Don's Mill, 2. p. 154. 



Synnnymes. Genista alba Lam. Diet., 2. p. 623. ; Spartium album Desf. Fl. At/., 2. p. 132. ; Spartium 

 multiflorum Ait. Hort. Keiu.,3. p. 11.; Sp^rtium dispermum Mcench Mefh.,p. 130. ; Genfsta mul- 

 tiflbra N. Du Ham., 2. p. 76. ; Spartium k Fleurs blanches, Fr. ; wcisse Pfriemen Ger 



Engravings. N, Du Ham., 2. t. 23 ; and our fig. 282. 



Spec. Char., S(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\ Mill.,\\. 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- -s^jMf^ 

 taining the height of 5 ft. or 6 ft. in 3 or 4 years, and, in Js^^^^j 

 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 Pai-is, 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 12^. per hundred, and seeds 10*. 

 per lb. At BoUwyller, and in New York, it is a green- 

 house plant. 



282 



