LEGUMINOSAE. 



145 



SPARTIUM. Spanish Broom. 

 (Family Leguminosae). 



Shrubs with elongated rush-like 

 stems: deciduous. Shoots moder- 

 ately slender, terete, striate- 

 ridged: pith rather large, some- 

 what angular, white, continuous. 

 Buds small, solitary, shorter than 

 the much elongated leaf-cushion, 

 the end-bud lacking. Leaf-scars 

 opposite or more commonly those 

 of a pair widely separated, mi- 

 nute: bundle-trace 1, indistinct 

 when the leaf-base is shriveled: 

 stipule-scars lacking. 



Spartium, which is called Spar- 

 tianthus sometimes, represents an 

 extreme case of the persistence 

 of a prolonged leaf-cushion or 

 petiole-base, which here far ex- 

 ceeds in length the subtended 

 bud. The condition is figured by 

 Lubbock, On Buds and Stipules, 



81, f. 124; and Schneider, f. 75. 



Glabrous, green, not pungent, though tapered at end. 



S. junceum. 



