GEN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



GEN 



599 



dry gravelly or sandy soils, flowering in July. In the old 

 writers it is called base broom, green weed, or green wood, 

 dyer's weed, and wood-waxen. 



8. Genista Sibirica; Siberian Genista. Leaves lanceolate, 

 smooth ; branches equal, round, upright. This resembles the 

 foregoing. Native of Siberia. 



9. Genista Florida; Spanish Dyer's Genista, or Broom. 

 Leaves lanceolate, silky ; branches streaked, round; flowers 

 in bundles, directed one way, terminating, succeeded by 

 short pods, which turn black when ripe, and contain four or 

 five kidney-shaped seeds. This rises with woody stalks two 

 or three feet high : it flowers in June and July. Native of 

 Spain. 



10. Genista Pilosa; Hairy Genista, or Broom. Leaves 

 solitary, lanceolate, obtuse, somewhat hairy ; peduncles the 

 length of the calix ; standard hairy on the outside ; branches 

 diffused; root long, running obliquely, and furnished with 

 many small fibres ; stem a foot in length or more, much 

 branched, tough ; the old branches naked; the young ones 

 clothed with numerous minute, oval, or oval-lanceolate leaves, 

 entire, smooth on the upper surface, beneath covered with 

 long, white, silky hairs ; flowers in short spikes on the sum- 

 mits of the branches, on short hairy peduncles. Native of 

 Sweden, Germany, Austria, Carniola, Hungary, Switzerland, 

 France, Italy, and Spain. It was not known to be growing 

 wild in England, until discovered by the late Sir John Cul- 

 lum and Mr. Dickson, about Lackford, four or five miles 

 from St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk. Mr. Woodward also ob- 

 served, that Cavenham, and other heaths near Bury, appear 

 yellow with the great plenty of these flowers, the flowering 

 branches standing up; at other times it is difficult to find 

 this shrub, the stem and branches being so closely procum- 

 bent, that they are often found even beneath the moss. It 

 flowers in May. 



11. Genista Humifusa. Leaves lanceolate, ciliate ; branches 

 prostrate, streaked, villose. Native'of the Levant. 



** Thorny.' 



12. Genista" Anglica ; English Genista, Petty Whin, or 

 Needle Furze. Thorns simple, awl-shaped ; flowering-branches 

 abbreviated, unarmed; leaves lanceolate, acute; legumes 

 straightish ; stem much branched ; branches tough, without 

 leaves, furnished with extremely sharp slender thorns, from a 

 quarter to half an inch in length. The yearly shoots grow 

 in bundles, on the summits of the old ones, and sparingly 

 from the sides : flowers few, small, pale, and yellow. They 

 appear from May till the end of July. Native of Dauphiny, 

 Denmark, and Britain, where it is found growing on the 

 heaths, and generally in moist spongy ground. 



13. Genista Germanica; German Genista, or Broom. 

 Thorns compound ; flowering-branches elongated, unarmed ; 

 leaves lanceolate, hairy ; legumes oblong, straightish ; stems 

 about a foot and a half in height, very much branched. The 

 old branches have no leaves, but strong branched thorns ; 

 the younger ones are full of green hairy leaves ; flowers in a 

 spike, long, and almost sessile ; banner cordate, reflex, and 

 thus much shorter than the keel, which is straight, and much 

 longer than the wings. It flowers in the end of May, or 

 the beginning of June, and ripens its seeds in September. 

 Native of Germany ; Switzerland, as about Lausanne, Basil, 

 Savoy, on Mont Saleve; near Geneva, where it was observed 

 by Ray. It is also found in dry woody parts of Dauphiny, 

 Piedmont, Carniola, and Arragon. 



14. Genista Hispanica; Dwarf Prickly Genista, or Broom. 

 Spines decompound ; flowering-branches unarmed ; leaves 

 linear-lanceolate, hairy; legumes ovate, straight. It rises 

 with woody stalks, two tor three feet high, sending out many 



taper-channelled branches, which grow erect ; flowers yellow, 

 in terminating spikes, succeeded by short pods, which turn 

 black when ripe, and contain four or five kidney-shaped 

 seeds. Native of Spain, south of France, and Carniola. It 

 flowers in June and July, and the seeds ripen in autumn. 



15. Genista Lusitanica; Portugal Genista, or Broom. 

 Stem leafless ; thorns decussated. The woody stems are 

 leafless ; the younger stems are leafy, and covered with de- 

 cussated spines. It flowers from March to May. Native of 

 Portugal. 



16. Genista Scandens ; Climbing Genista, or Broom. 

 Spines simple ; stem climbing ; leaves bipinnate. This is a 

 large shrub, with a very long, round, climbing, branched 

 stem, having many short recurved spines scattered over it ; 

 flowers in large, loose, terminating, pendulous racemes ; co- 

 rolla yellow, with an oblong reflex banner ; calix of the same 

 colour. Native of Cochin-china, near rivers, mounting to 

 the top of large trees, and covering them with its golden 

 flowers. 



17. Genista Hirsuta. Spines ternate, decussated ; leaves 

 simple, lanceolate; spikes terminating, hirsute. This is a 

 very thorny rigid shrub, with round branches, leafless below, 

 extremely hirsute at top ; spike of flowers from the ends of 

 the branches, an inch in length, imbricate, very hirsute. 

 Native of Old Castile. 



Gentian. See Gentiana. 



Gentiana; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth five-parted, 

 sharp ; divisions oblong, permanent. Corolla : petal one, 

 tubular at bottom, imperforate, at top five-cleft, flat, wither- 

 ing, various in form. Stamina: filamenta five, subulate, 

 shorter than the corolla; antherse simple. Pistil: germen 

 oblong, cylindric, length of the stamina; styles none; stig- 

 mas two, ovate. Pericarp: capsule oblong, columnar, acu- 

 minate, slightly bifid at the tip, one-celled, two-valved. 

 Seeds: numerous, small, fixed all round to the walls of the 

 capsule; receptacles two, each fastened longitudinally to a 

 valve. Observe. The figure of the fruit is constant; but, 

 both that and the flower vary much in the different species, 

 as well in number as in form. Some species exclude a fifth 

 part of the number in the flower. One adds three parts of 

 the number in the flower. One species has the neck of the 

 corolla spreading; a second has the neck closed with hairs; 

 a third has the segments of the corolla ciliate ; a fourth has 

 a bell-shaped, upright, plaited border; in a fifth, it is starred 

 with small segments, interposed between the larger ones; 

 some have a bell-shaped, and others a funnel-shaped corolla. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla: monopetalous. Cap- 

 sule: superior, two-valved, one-celled; with two longitudinal 



receptacles. The species are, 



* Corollas five-clef t or thereabouts, and somewhat bell-shaped, 



1. Gentiana Viscosa; Clammy Gentian. Corollas five- 

 cleft, one-styled ; panicles trichotomous ; bractes perfoliate ; 

 leaves oblong, three-nerved. See Exacum Viscosum. This, 

 together with the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth species, with a 

 few others not at present in cultivation, require the protec- 

 tion of the green -house. 



2. Gentiana Lutea ; Yellow Gentian. Corollas usually 

 five-cleft, wheel-shaped in whorls ; calices spatliaceous ; root 

 thick, of a yellowish-brown colour, and of a very bitter taste ; 

 lower leaves petioled, oblong-ovate, a little pointed, stiff 1 , 

 yellowish-green, having five large veins on the back, and 

 plaited ; stem three or four feet high or more, with a pair of 

 leaves at each joint, sessile, or almost embracing, of the 

 same form with the lower ones, but diminishing gradually to 

 the top ; flowers in whorls at the upper joints ; fruit short, 



