CARAGANA 287 



are armed. In place of a terminal odd leaflet, the leaf-stalk has either 

 a bristle or a short spine. In some species, after the leaflets fall the 

 stalk remains, becomes woody, and is transformed into a slender spine 

 which persists for years. The stipules frequently develop into a pair of 

 spines also. Thus the Caraganas may be armed (i) with single spines, 

 or transformed leaf-stalks; (2) double spines, or stipules with the leaf- 

 stalk fallen away ; or (3) triple spines where both leaf-stalk and stipules 

 persist. But generally they are by no means so formidably armed under 

 cultivation as they are in nature. Some of them inhabit dry, half desert 

 regions, and, as frequently happens with such plants introduced to a damp, 

 comparatively sunless country, the spines are neither so long nor so 

 numerous as in the wild state. What is there a spine often becomes a 

 mere bristle with us. 



Another distinctive character general to the Caraganas are the curious 

 arrested branches covered with scales. These commence from the joints 

 of the year-old shoots, and produce a cluster of leaves and flowers every 

 year, slowly increasing in length, but making no wood in the proper 

 sense of the term. 



Most of the kinds are of easy cultivation. The only ones that do not 

 adapt themselves readily to the British climate are C. jubata, Gerardiana, 

 spinosa, and tragacanthoides, especially the two first. The others thrive 

 in sunny places, and do not require a rich soil. They mostly produce 

 seeds which germinate freely; those which do not can be grafted on 

 C. arborescens, whilst aurantiaca, pygmsea, and the thinner-twigged ones 

 can be increased by cuttings. 



i. LEAF WITH FOUR LEAFLETS. 



A. Frutescens. Unarmed in cultivation. 



B. Aurantiaca, pygmcea, Chamlagu. Stipules persistent, spiny. (The last has leaflets to 



over i in. long.) 



2. LEAF WITH MORE THAN FOUR LEAFLETS. 



A. Arborescens, microphylla. Leaf-stalk deciduous ; stipules spiny. (The latter has up 



to eighteen very small leaflets.) 



B. Brevisplna, Gerardiana, jubata, spinosa, tragacanthoides. Leaf-stalk persistent and 



spiny. (Brevispina differs from the rest of this section in having three or four 

 flowers on one stalk ; the rest have solitary flowers.) 



C. ARBORESCENS, Lamarck. PEA-TREE. 



A deciduous shrub up to 15 and 20 ft. high, of rather erect, sometimes almost 

 fastigiate i habit ; by pruning away the lower branches and training up a 

 leading shoot, it may be made to take the form of a small tree ; bark on young 

 branchlets slightly winged. Leaves ii to 3 ins. long, equally pinnate, consisting 

 usually of four to six pairs of leaflets (more on young or exceptionally vigorous 

 shoots). Leaflets oval or obovate, \ to in. long, becoming nearly or quite 

 smooth ; the main-stalk ending in a bristle-like spine. Stipules linear, spine- 

 tipped, developing ultimately into a pair of stiff spines at each joint, j in. long. 

 Flowers yellow, produced singly on thin, downy stalks from \ to \\ ins. long, 

 several coming from each of the enlarged scaly buds on the previous year's 

 wood. Each flower is f to | in. long ; calyx \ in. long, helmet-shaped, five- 

 toothed, with hairy margins ; standard petal not expanded but curled backwards 

 at the sides. Pod i to 2 ins. long on a slender stalk about the same length, 



