C Y T 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C Y T 



429 



be placed in a sheltered situation, and as they do not shoot 

 till late in the spring, they need not be transplanted before 

 the end of March or the beginning of April; and if the sea- 

 son should then prove warm and dry, it will be proper to 

 give the plants gome water, to settle the earth to their roots ; 

 and if the drought continue, and the waterings lire three 

 times repeated at a week's interval from each, it will be of 

 service to the plants. When they have taken new root, they 

 will require no further care, but to keep them constantly 

 clean from weeds : in this nursery, the plants may remain two 

 years, in which time they will have acquired strength enough 

 to be transplanted where they are to remain. 



3. Cytisus Wolivaricus ; Wingtd-ttoocd Cytistts. Hoary : 

 racemes simple, erect ; flowers pointing the same way ; leaves 

 pinnate ; leuHcts roundish ; stipules subulate. This is a very 

 handsome shrub, scarcely growing two feet high. Theleaves 

 have from three to nine, but usually six or seven pairs of 

 leaflets, terminated by an odd one ; they are smooth above, 

 silvery beneath, and mostly orbiculate. The flowers are 

 large, and of a deep yellow colour, in axillary and terminating 

 racemes, erect on peduncles much longer than the leaves, 

 about ten in number, generally opposite, or nearly so, in 

 pairs, vi ith a small acuminate bracte to each pedicel ; calix 

 and pedicels lanuginose, and having reddish glutinous glands 

 scattered over them ; seeds large, gray, testaceous, variegat- 

 ed. Native of Siberia, in the deserts between the Tanais 

 and the Wolga. See the second species. 



4. Cytisus Sessilifolius; Common Cytisus. Racemes erect ; 

 calices with a triple bracte ; floral leaves sessile. This rises 

 with a woody stalk, putting out many branches, covered with 

 a brownish bark ; leaflets obovate, ternate, on very short 

 petioles ; flowers in close short terminating racemes, of a 

 bright yellow colour ; legumes short and broad. This shrub 

 rises to the height of seven or eight feet, and becomes very 

 bushy. It is easily known by its smoothness, the uprightness 

 of the stalks and racemes, and particularly by the triple 

 bracte immediately below the flower. Ruminating animals 

 greedily devour the leaves and young branches of this species, 

 while the goat alone will feed upon the Laburnum. Native 

 of the south of Europe. This is a hardy plant, that will 

 thrive in any situation, and almost in any soil that is not too 

 wet. It is propagated by seeds, Which may be sown upon a 

 common bed of light earth in the spring ; in autumn the 

 plants may be removed into the nursery, where they may 

 remain two years to acquire strength, and should then be 

 removed to the places where they are designed to grow. 



5. Cytisus Cajan ; Pigeon Cytisus, or Pigeon Pea. Ra- 

 cemes axillary, erect ; leaflets sublanceolate, tomentose, the 

 middle one on a longer petiole. This rises with a weak 

 shrubby stalk, eight or ten feet high, sendingout many side- 

 branches, which grow erect. The flowers come out from the 

 side of the branches, singly or in clusters ; they are of a deep 

 yellow colour, and about the size of those of the common 

 Laburnum. The Pigeon-pea is frequently planted in the 

 West India islands, chiefly in rows, as a fence to the sugar 

 plantations, and will thrive on barren lands. The seed is 

 much eaten by poor people and negroes, and is esteemed a 

 wholesome pulse ; even the better sort of people in the island 

 of Martinico hold it in estimation, and prefer it to the Euro- 

 pean pea. In Jamaica it is chiefly used for feeding pigeons ; 

 whence its nnme. The branches, with the ripe seed and 

 leaves, are given to feed horses, cattle, and hogs, which grow 

 very fat upon them. Native of both Indies, and of Africa, 

 whence they are supposed to have been originally brought to 

 ttie West Indies, where they are called Angola-peas, and pois 

 (f Angola. It grows only in hot countries, and cannot be pre- 



VOL. i. 36. 



served in England, except in the bark-stove, It rises easily 

 from seeds ina hot-bed, and will growthree or four feet high 

 the first year, provided it have proper heat ; and in the 

 second year the plants will produce flowers and seeds. 



6. Cytisus Hirsutus ; Hairy or Evergreen Cytisus. Pe- 

 duncles simple, lateral ; calices hirsute, trifid, obtuse, ven- 

 tricose, oblong. This plant has a soft shrubby stalk, dividing 

 into many branches, which grow erect, and frequently rise to 

 tin- height of eight or ten feet ; the stalks, branches, and 

 leaves are very hairy ; the leaves are ternate, ovate, and placed 

 closely on the branches ; the flowers come out from the side 

 of the stalk, in short racemes ; they are of a pale yellow, ap- 

 pearing in June, and are succeeded by long, narrow, hairy- 

 legumes, which ripen in September. Native of the south of 

 Europe and Siberia. This may be propagated in the same 

 manner as has been directed for the second sort ; but as it is 

 sometimes killed in severe frosts, it should be planted only 

 on a dry soil, and in a warm situation ; it is also very diffi- 

 cult to remove, when grown to any size. 



7. Cytisus Capitatus ; Cluster-flowered Cytisus. Flowers 

 in heads; branches erect, strict, round, villose ; leaves ovate- 

 elliptic, villose ; bracte linear beneath the calix. It differs 

 from the preceding, in having most of the flowers terminating 

 in agenuine bend ; the leaves more obtuse and hairy on both 

 sides ; the stems scarcely ever a cubit in height, and ex- 

 tremely hirsute. Native of Austria, Curniola, and Silesia. 

 See the second species. 



8. Cytisus Austriacus ; Siberian Cytisus, Flowers in um- 

 bels terminating ; stem erect ; leaflets lanceolate. This has 

 a shrubby stalk, which rises nearly four feet high, dividing 

 into many branches, which, when young, are covered with a 

 green bark ; the flowers are produced in close heads at the 

 ends of the branches, having a cluster of leaves under them ; 

 they are of a bright yellow colour, appear in the beginning of 

 May, and are sometimes succeeded by short woolly legumes, 

 containing three or four small seeds. Native of Austria, 

 Hungary, Silesia, Italy, and Siberia. This requires a cold 

 situation, and a strong soil. 



9. Cytisus Supinus ; Trailing Cytisus. Flowers peduncled, 

 about two together; leaves villose; stem decumbent, becom- 

 ing shrubby- The stems of this are almost wholly procum- 

 bent, round, dusky, a little divided : the ends are closely 

 beset with leaves and flowers, which come out together from 

 spreading buds, formed of a few subovate simple bractes ; 

 the longer stems are frequently decorated with flowers for a 

 foot in length ; two flowers usually proceed from each bud, 

 but sometimes only one, and rarely three or more, on short 

 peduncles. The younger branches, the petioles, peduncles, 

 and leaves, especially underneath, are covered with soft 

 whitish hairs, which are frequently soft, and scarcely visible; 

 flowers erect, deep yellow, but becoming reddish before they 

 decay ; seeds several, shining, brown. In the garden it be- 

 comes more pubescent, and by age more shrubby, branched, 

 and diffused, rising to four feet in height, with long recurved 

 branches loaded with flowers. Native of the south of 

 Europe and Siberia. See the second species. 



10. Cytisus Proliferus ; Silky Cytisus. Flowers in lateral 

 umbels ; stems erect ; leaves elliptic, acute, silky under- 

 neath ; calices woolly. The stems, but especially the small 

 branches, are almost tomentose ; leaves alternate, petioled ; 

 peduncles axillary, (four to eight,) equal, one-flowered, a 

 little longer than the petiole; filiform, villose, with two op- 

 posite filiform bractes near the flower ; corollas large, white. 

 When the flowering is past, a branch grows out in the centre 

 of the peduncles. It flowers in April and May, and is found 

 in the mountain woods of Teneriffe. This, with the fourteenth, 



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