XXV. LEGUMINA^CE^ I CY'TISUS. 



213 



down. Flowers axillary, on short pedicels. 

 Calyx and pedicels silky. Legumes pu- 

 bescent, and 3 ^-seeded. (Dec. Prod.) 

 A procumbent shrub. South of France, 

 Switzerland, Germany, &c. ; and Britain, 

 on dry elevated downs or heaths, in 

 Suffolk, Cornwall, and North Wales. 

 Height 1 ft. Flowers yellow ; May and 

 June. Legume brown; ripe in Sept. 

 The specific name, pilosa, is certainly not 

 very appropriate, for there are other species, 

 such as G. candicans, much more hairy. 



3Z8. Genista piltea. 



Other Species of Genista. G.spinosa, in the Hort. Soc. Garden, is a young 

 plant with trifoliolate leaves, and the side shoots terminating in spines. There 

 are various other names in collections, and a great many in books ; but the 

 whole genus is in such a state of confusion, that nothing can be determined 

 with certainty respecting the species, till they are all collected together and 

 cultivated in the same garden and examined. 



GENUS VII. 



CY'TISUS Dec. THE CYTISUS. Lin. Syst. Monadelphia Decandria. 



Identification. Dec. Prod., 2. p. 153. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 154. 



Synonymes. Cytisus and Spartium sp. Lin., Lam. &c.; Cytise, Fr. ; Bohnenbaum,Ger. ; Citiso, Ital. 



Derivation. From Cythnus, one of the Cyclades, the first of the species known having been found there. 



Gen Char. Calyx bilabiate. Upper Lip usually entire ; lower one somewhat 

 tridentate. Vexillum ovate, large. Carina very obtuse, including the sta- 

 mens and pistils. Stamens monadelphous. Legume compressed, many-seeded, 

 glandless. (Don's Mill.) 



Leaves trifoliolate, alternate, stipulate. Flowers of nearly all the species 

 yellow. Deciduous or sub-evergreen shrubs of short duration, or low trees ; 

 natives chiefly of the Middle and South of Europe. 



All the species have trifoliolate leaves, and the flowers are for the most part 

 yellow. The shrubs have the habit of Genista or of tfpartium, to both which 

 genera they are nearly allied. They are all ornamental, some of them eminently 

 so ; and those which have their flowers in terminal racemes are decidedly more 

 elegant than those which have them in close terminal, or in axillary heads. 

 The wood of the laburnum is valuable in turnery and cabinet-work. * All the 

 species produce seeds in abundance, by which they are almost exclusively 

 propagated. The species recorded in books are numerous ; but, if they were 

 all brought together, and cultivated in the same garden, we question much if 

 a tithe of them would be found specifically distinct. 



i. Albumbides Dec. 



Derivation. From the word alburnum, signifying the white inner sap-wood of trees ; and applied 

 to this section from the flowers of the species being white. 



Sect. Char. Calyx campanulate. Pod 1 4^-seeded, not dilated at the upper 

 suture. Flowers white. Leaves very few. Branches unarmed. (Dec. 

 Prod., ii. p. 153.) 



* 1. C. A'LBUS Link. The white Cytisus, or Portugal Broom. 



Identification. Link Enum., 2. p. 241. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 153. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 154. 



Synonymes. Genista albaLam. Diet. 2. p. 623. ; Spartium album Desf. Fl. All. '2. p. 132.; Spartium 

 multiflorum Ait. Hort. Kew. 3. p. 11. ; Spartium dispermum Mcench Meth. p. 130. ; Genista mul- 

 tifl.Va N. Du Ham. 2. p. 76. ; Spartium a Fleurs blanches, Fr. ; veisse Pfriemen, Ger. 



Engravings. N. Du Ham., 2. t. 23. ; and our fig. 339. 



p 3 



