xxv. LEGUMINA V CE;E : GENI'STA. 



In Italy and the South of France a very good cloth 

 is manufactured from the fibres of this plant. Both in 

 Spain and France, the shoots are used for forming 

 baskets, and for tying up vines and other fruit trees. 

 The bees are said to be very fond of the flowers ; and 

 the seeds are eaten with great avidity by poultry, par- 

 tridges, &c. Medicinally, the flowers and leaves, in 

 infusion, act as an emetic, or, in a larger quantity, as an 

 aperient. In Britain, the plant is solely regarded as an 

 ornamental shrub. Seeds are produced in abundance, 

 and they will come up in any soil that is tolerably dry. 

 In the nursery, they ought to be transplanted every year, 

 as they are apt to form long taproots and very few fibres. 



305. Spirtiuiujunceum. 



GENUS VI. 





C7ENTSTA Lam. THE GENISTA. Lin. Syst. Monadelphia Decandria. 



Identification. Lam. Diet., 2. p. 616. ; 111 t. 619. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 145. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 148. 

 Synouymes. Genista, et Sp&rtium, spec. Lin. ; Genet, Fr. ; Ginster, Ger. ; Ginestra, Ital. 



Gen. Char. Calyx bilabiate, upper lip bipartite, lower one tridentate, or 5- 

 lobed, the three lower lobes nearly joined to the apex. Vexillum oblong-oval. 

 Carina oblong, straight, not always containing the stamens and pistils. Sta- 

 mens monadelphous. Legume compressed, many-seeded. (Don's Mill.) 



Leaves simple or compound, alternate, rarely opposite, stipulate, decidu- 

 ous or sub-evergreen ; lanceolate, linear, or trifoliolate. Floiuers terminal or 

 axillary, yellow. 



The hardy species are deciduous or sub-evergreen shrubs, generally with 

 trifoliolate leaves and yellow flowers ; there is a great sameness of character 

 among them, and, though many are quite distinct, yet it is highly probable that 

 the greater number now recorded as species are only varieties. They are 

 chiefly natives of Europe ; but a few are found in the North of Africa. As 

 they grow rapidly, and flower freely, especially on soils not wet at bottom, 

 they are desirable plants for newly formed shrubberies, but in general they 

 are not of long duration. A number of the species were formerly included 

 under the genus Spartium and some under Cytisus, from which they have 

 been separated by Lamarck, whose arrangement, as modified by DeCandolle, 

 we have adopted in the following enumeration. 



1. Unarmed. Leaves all, or for the most part, trifoliolate. 



Sfc 1. G. PARVIFLO'RA Dec. The small- 

 flowered Genista.. 



Identification. Dec. Prod., 2. p. 145. : Don's Mill., 



2. p. 148. 



Svnonyme. Spartium parviflbrum Vent. Hort. Gets. 

 *t.87. 

 Engravings. Vent. Hort. Cels.,t.87.; and our fig 306. 



Spec. Charge. Leaf trifoliolate, the petiole 

 very short ; and the leaflets usually deci- 

 duous, very narrow, glabrous. Flowers 

 in lengthened terminal racemes. Le- 

 gumes compressed, 1 3-seeded, rather 

 pubescent, being covered with minute 

 closely pressed down, slightly spread- 

 ing. (Dec. Prod.) A deciduous shrub. 



Levant, near the Gulf of Mundania. 



'<* ~^k 



306. fienista parvidora. 



