378 COLUTEA 



Native of the Mediterranean region and S.E. Europe ; cultivated for at 

 least three hundred years in England. Few introduced shrubs have made 

 themselves so thoroughly at home as this. It has taken possession of some 

 of the railway banks in the suburbs of London, and will, indeed, grow in 

 almost any position not water -logged where it has sufficient light. Its 

 accommodating nature has made it, perhaps, despised in gardens, but it is 

 quite pretty when in full bloom, and it lasts more or less from June until the 

 frosts come. The inflated pods, which explode with a sharp report when 

 squeezed, make the shrub very attractive to children. A group of plants can 

 be kept to a neat shape and convenient size by pruning back the shoots almost 

 to the old wood every winter, the flowers being borne on the shoots of the 

 year. The abundant seeds render its increase easy. 



Var. BULLATA (pygmaea). A dwarf variety of dense habit, whose leaflets 

 are small and wavy at the margin, % to -f in. long. Racemes i to i r? ins. long. 



C. CILICICA, Boissicr. 

 (C. longialata, Koehne?) 



A deciduous shrub, similar in habit to C. arborescens. Leaves composed 

 of nine to thirteen leaflets, which are obovate or oval,- with a few flattened 

 hairs beneath. Flowers yellow, produced three or five together in .short 

 racemes. Wing-petals longer than the keel. 



Native of Asia Minor. Very similar to C. arborescens (of which it is 

 perhaps only a geographical form) and melanocalyx ; it is chiefly distinguished 

 ffom the former by the larger wing-petals, and from the latter by the unfelted 

 calyx. 



C. ISTRIA, Miller. 



(C. halepica, Lamarck ; C. Pocockii, Aiton.") 



A deciduous shrub, 3 or 4 ft. high, much branched. Leaves composed of 

 nine to fifteen leaflets, which are the smallest among cultivated Coluteas, being 

 to in. long, obovate -or broadly oval, and furnished with white flattened 

 hairs. Flowers borne two to five together towards the end of a raceme about 

 2 ins. long. Each flower is f in. long, coppery yellow, with a handsome 

 standard petal f- in. across ; wings as long as keel. Pod 2 ins. or more long. 



Native of Asia Minor, and a similar or closely allied plant occurs in 

 Abyssinia. It was first introduced in 1752, but the true plant has always been 

 rare. It is, perhaps, not hardy enough to withstand our severest frosts. The 

 small graceful foliage and handsome flowers make it at once distinct and 

 handsome, and it has not the rank growth of the arborescens group. It is the 

 earliest of the genus to flower, commencing in late May or early June, and 

 continuing more or less for three months. 



C. MEDIA, Willdenoiv. 



A hybrid between C. arborescens and C. orientalis, given this name by the 

 German botanist in 1809, at which time it was cultivated in the Botanic 

 Garden of Berlin. It is a vigorous shrub of bushy habit very similar in general 

 appearance to C. arborescens, the leaves consisting usually of eleven or 

 thirteen leaflets, which are obovate, ^ to I in. long, bluish green, downy beneath 

 when young. The influence of C. orientalis is most in evidence in the colour 

 of the flowers, which are of a brownish red or coppery hue, also in the longer, 

 linear-lanceolate teeth of the calyx, as compared with the triangular lobes of 

 C. arborescens. C. media has a large inflated pod like C. arborescens, 3 ins. 



