COLLETIA COLUTEA 377 



spines will sometimes, though rarely, produce shoots with flattish bodkin-like 

 spines has created some confusion. In the first edition of this work I adopted 

 the generally accepted view that C. cruciata and C. spinosa were one and the 

 same species the latter being simply the bodkin-spined form of C. cruciata. 

 Lately, Mr N. E. Brown, who has carefully studied the question, has stated 

 that the two are perfectly distinct. The old story of C. cruciata being raised 

 from seed of C. spinosa at Bicton, sometime previous to 1850, must, therefore, 

 be disbelieved, as, indeed, it largely was when first told. The shrubs (consist- 

 ing of what are now regarded as three or four distinct species) to which the 

 name C. spinosa was given, are natives of Chile and Peru, and, therefore, from 

 the opposite side of the continent to C. cruciata. Two species with bodkin- 

 shaped spines are in cultivation named by Mr Brown as follows : 



C. ARMATA, Mzers, a native of Chile, has terete spines | to ii ins. long, very 

 rigid and sharply pointed, greyish green, and differing from those of C. cruciata 

 in both its states in being covered with short down. The flowers are white, 

 very like those of C. cruciata, the stamens exserted. The shrub grows at least 

 10 ft. high and blossoms in September. The fruit is composed of three united 

 roundish capsules each in. wide and carrying a single seed. The second 

 species, similar in general aspect to C. armata, Mr Brown calls C. INFAUSTA. 

 This is glabrous and has the stamens inclosed within the perianth. Cultivated 

 at Bicton, where it blossoms in March. Flowers white. (Figured Bot. Mag., 

 t. 3644, as C. horrida.) 



COLUTEA. BLADDER SENNA. LEGUMINOS^E. 







A small genus of deciduous shrubs, natives of the Old World, with 

 unequally pinnate leaves and yellow, coppery, or reddish brown, pea- 

 shaped flowers borne in few-flowered racemes. The most distinctive 

 character of the genus is the large inflated pod, which, when half ripe, 

 may be made to burst with a miniature report when squeezed. There 

 is nothing similar among hardy Leguminosse, and among all hardy shrubs 

 similar fruits occur only in Staphylea and Koelreuteria. 



In gardens the Coluteas do not figure largely; although the 

 commonest species, C. arborescens, is sometimes seen in rough 

 shrubberies. They all flower late, and over a long season, which is in 

 their favour; and all except C. istria are of the easiest cultivation, 

 thriving in any soil and any situation except a very shaded one. Those 

 species that produce seeds are easily propagated by them, the others 

 can be struck from cuttings made of half-ripened wood placed in gentle 

 heat. 



C. ARBORESCENS, Linnceus. COMMON BLADDER SENNA. 



A strong-growing, deciduous shrub up to 12 ft. high, of bushy habit and 

 copiously branched. Leaves 3 to 6 ins. long ; leaflets nine to thirteen, elliptic 

 or broadly obovate with the apex notched, from \ to i in. long, hairy beneath 

 when young, becoming nearly or quite smooth with age. Racemes axillary 

 on the current season's growth, produced successively as the branches extend ; 

 ii to 4 ins. long, carrying three to seven flowers towards the end. Flowers 

 pea-shaped, yellow, f in. long, borne on a downy stalk \ in. long ; wing-petals 

 rather shorter than the keel ; calyx cup-shaped, with triangular lobes. Pod 

 inflated and bladder-like, about 3 ins. lonf, i to \\ ins. wide, pointed, many- 

 seeded. 



