30 WILD FLOWERS. 



as well as by its long, straight, green, smooth and 

 pliant branches, and its flattened, and many-seeded, 

 pods, which, as Sir J. E. Smith remarks, are a little 

 hairy at the margin. Its leaves, which are deciduous, 

 though the whole aspect of the plant is that of an 

 evergeen, are ternate below, but become single, or as 

 botanists term it, " simple/' towards the tops of the 

 branches. Its seeds are shining, and slightly flat- 

 tened; and the whole plant, which on commons and 

 exposed hill-sides scarcely rises to a height of more 

 than three feet, or perhaps trails on the ground, is 

 frequently seen in some sunny and sheltered copse 

 to form a grove of eight, or even ten feet high, which 

 blossoms in the early summer time like a molten sea 

 of gold. 



