PLANTA GENIS'TA. INDIGO. 199 



the first time on the commons near London, that, 

 it is said, he fell on his knees to admire it. 



Dyer's Green-weed, Genis'ta tincto'ria, is a na- 

 tive of England, and is frequently met with on dry 

 banks in the borders of fields. The whole of the 

 plant dyes a yellow colour, and is preferred to all 

 other yellows for colouring wool ; and by means of 

 Woad, Isa'tis tincto'ria, a plant of the fifteenth 

 class, which affords a blue tint, the yellow can 

 afterwards be made green. 



The name of Plantagenet, of which you have 

 read so much in the history of England, is supposed 

 to be derived from this plant. Fulke, Earl of 

 Anjou, who lived a century before the Norman 

 conquest, was enjoined, by way of penance for some 

 crime which he had been guilty of, to go to the 

 Holy Land : he wore, it is said, a sprig of genista 

 in his cap, as a mark of humility, and afterwards 

 adopted from it the title of Plantagenet, (Planta ge- 

 nis'ta, or genes' ta), which his descendants retained. 



The remaining plants of the class Diadelphia, 

 that I shall now mention to you, are not natives 

 o/ England. 



That which affords the Indigo, with which blue 

 ctoth is dyed, Indigo'fera tincto'ria, in the order 

 Decandria, is a native of the East Indies. The 

 4ye is obtained by steeping the leaves and small 

 branches of the plant in water, and drying the 

 o 4 



