Colutea. 73 



somewhat peculiar green color well into autumn. The 

 flowers resemble the famous sweet pea in form, but are 

 less conspicuous. The blossoms are yellow, and con- 

 tinue in succession during the entire summer. They are 

 succeeded by bladdery pods, two to three inches in length, 

 containing the seed, which also hang long, so that we 

 have the bush in flower and fruit at the same time and for 

 a protracted period. These yellow blossoms and the thin, 

 almost pellucid pods, hanging among the green leaves 

 make it an object of interest to almost every one who 

 comes into its presence. This bush is one of the few 

 which brave the terrors of Mount Vesuvius, growing to the 

 very summit, and is found occasionally even within the 

 circle of the crater, where vegetation can scarcely gain a 

 foothold. Such a fact ought to suggest its adaptation to 

 dry and sandy plains and other locations which it is 

 difficult to cover with herbage. No one would be likely 

 to suspect that such a slender-looking shrub would with- 

 stand such exposures and thrive where so very little else 

 can endure. There is a variety of much smaller dimen- 

 sions, known as C. a. pygmcza, which is also a shapely bush 

 and may be of service where space is limited. 



C. criienta is much the same as the preceding, except 

 that it grows only from four to six feet and has blossoms 

 tinted with pale red or blood-color. These also appear in 

 early summer, and are continuous in succession for a long 

 time. The leaflets, which are from seven to nine in number, 

 are smaller and more glaucous that in the preceding. It is a 

 very pretty plant. C. hallepica is another form with larger 

 yellow flowers than either of the other species. It grows 



