Cytisus.] LEGUMINOS^. 93 



1-3, J-4 in. Flowers 1 in., bright yellow, rarely white, pedicels short. 

 Style spiral. Pod 1-2 in., black ; valves twisted after dehiscence. — A pro- 

 strate variety is found at Kynance Cove. — Disteib. From Gothland S., 

 excl. Greece and Turkey, N. Asia, Canaries, Azores. — Twigs diuretic, and 

 used for tanning. Seeds a substitute for coffee. 



A. ONO'NIS, L. Best-harrow. 

 Herbs or small shrubs, with often viscid hairs. Leaves pinnately - 

 foliolate, nerves ending in teeth ; stipules adnate to the petiole. Flowers 

 pink, white or yellow, not honeyed ; bracts minute or 0, upper leaves 

 bracteseform ; peduncles sometimes spinescent. Standard broad ; wings 

 oblong ; keel incurved, pointed, not adnate to the staminal tube, return- 

 ing to position after deflection. Filaments all connate, 5 or all dilated 

 above ; anthers uniform, or the alternate smaller. Style incurved, smooth, 

 stigma terminal ; ovules 2 or many. Pod turgid or terete, 1-celled, 

 2-valved. — Distrib. Europe, W. Asia, N. Africa ; species 60. — Etym. 

 The Greek name for the genus. 



1. O. spino'sa, L. ; suffrulicose, hirsute, usually spiny, pod obliquely 

 ovate or oblong 1-4-seeded. 



Dry pastures, fields, and sandy shores, N. to Sutherland ; Ireland ; Channel 

 Islands ; fl. June- Aug. — A very variable undershrub, 1-2 ft., much branched, 

 villous or thinly hairy and glandular, hairs on the branches in 2 lines or all 

 round. Leaves often 1-foliolate, leaflets j-f in. Flowers sessile or shortly 

 pedicelled, solitary or in leafy racemes, ^ in. long, or less, pink, proteran- 

 drous. Standard streaked with red. Pod J in. long. Seeds granulate. — 

 Distrib. Europe, W. Asia, N. Africa. — The two sub-species present no 

 constant characters, and authors are greatly at variance with respect to the 

 names they should bear. Wilkomm and Lange appear to have devoted 

 most time and study to them. They adopt the Linnean names for the 

 two principal forms (as does Boissier for the erect form), and they describe 

 a third intermediate one for O. arven'sis, L., to which they refer O. 

 spino'sa a, L., 0. inev'mis 8, Huds., and O. procur'rens r Wallr., as syno- 

 nyms. It differs from reports in the shorter standard and pods, and is 

 foetid and viscidly hirsute. 



O. spinosa proper; erect, spinous, not foetid, without stolons, hairs on 

 branches usually bifarious, leaflets linear-oblong, pod usually equalling the 

 calyx. O. spinosa a, L., O. campestris, Koch and Ziz. — From Forfar and 

 Dumbarton southd. ; not in Ireland. 



Sub-sp. O. re'pens, L. ; viscidly villous, prostrate or ascending, stoloniferous, 

 rarely spinous, leaflets ovate or obovate, flowers larger, pod usually shorter 

 than the calyx. O. inev'mis B, Huds. O. procum'bens B, marit'ima, Gren. 

 and Godr. — Dry pastures and sandy shores, common.— Var. horrida, Lange, 

 is a maritime spinous form. 



2. O. reclina'ta, L. ; annual, spreading, viscid and hairy, pod cylin- 

 dric oblong reflexed. 



Sea-cliffs, Devon, Wigton ; Alderney ; fl. June-July. — Stem 2-3 in. Leaflets 

 J— | in., acutely toothed ; stipules large, |-ovate. Pedicels slender, jointed 

 beneath the flower. Flower | in., rosy. Pod § in., glandular and hairy 

 as long as the calyx or longer. — Distrib. W. France, Spain, Italy, Greece.. 



