590 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART J1J. 



Variety. 



a* C. a. 2 incarndtus has flesh-coloured flowers, or flowers very slightly 

 tinged with reddish purple. This variety was introduced in 1818; 

 and reproduces itself from seeds, but it varies much in the quantity 

 of colour in the flowers. 



ii. 'Laburnum Dec. 



Derivation. A name applied by Pliny to some species of Cy'tisus. 



Sect. Char. Calyx campanulate. Pod many-seeded, not dilated at the upper 



suture. Flowers yellow. Branches leafy and unarmed. (Dec. ProcL, ii. 



p. 153.) 



*t 2. C. LABU'RNUM L. The common Laburnum. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 1041. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 153. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 154. 



Synonymes. C. alplnus Lam. Fl. Fr., c 2.p. 621.; Bean-trefoile Tree, and PeascodTree, Gerard; Pea 

 Tree, Scotch ; Golden Chain ; 1'Aubours, faux E'benier, Arbois, or Arc-Bois, Fr. ; gemeine Boh- 

 nenbaum, Ger. 



Derivation. The name of L'Aubours, which is given to this tree in Dauphin^ and Switzerland, is 

 supposed by Du Hamel to be a corruption of the Latin word laburnum The word Arbois is 

 a corruption of arc-boit, the wood of this tree having been used by the ancient Gauls to make 

 their bows ; and being still so employed by the country people, in some parts of the Macon- 

 nois, where these bows are found to preserve their strength and elasticity during half a century. 

 The name of False Ebony is applied to the wood, from the blackness of its heart-wood. The 

 German name signifies Bean Tree, and both it and the English and Scotch names of Bean- 

 trefoil and Pea Tree have reference to the shape of the leaves and the legumes. The name 

 of Golden Chain alludes to the length of the drooping racemes of flowers, which, as Cowper 

 elegantly describes them, are " rich in streaming gold." 



Engravings. Jacq. Aust., t. 306. ; Curt. Bot. Mag., 1. 176. ; N. Du. Ham. 5. t. 44. ; J. Bauhin Hist, 

 1. p. 3. and 361. icon. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Branches terete, whitish. Leaves petiolate ; leaflets ovate- 

 lanceolate, pubescent beneath. Racemes pendulous, simple. Pedicels 

 and calyxes clothed with closely pressed pubescence. Legume linear, 

 many-seeded, clothed with closely pressed pubescence. A tree, a native 

 of Europe, on the lower mountains of the south of Germany, and of Swit- 

 zerland, where it grows to the height of 20ft. or upwards. It was intro- 

 duced in 1596, and produces its fine yellow flowers in May and June. 

 Varieties. 



*t C. L. 2 qnercifdliiim Hort., C. L. 2 incisum, has sinuated leaflets, not 

 unlike the leaves of the common oak. (See our plate of this variety 

 in Vol. II.) 



*t C. L. 3 pendulum Hort. has pendulous branches. 

 ^ C. L. 4 foliis variegdtis has variegated leaves ; but it is a plant of no 



beauty. 



C. L. 5 purpiirdscens Hort., C. L. purpureum Hort., C. Adam/, Poir., 

 C. L. coccineum Baum. Cat., the purple Laburnum, the scarlet 

 Laburnum, is a hybrid between C. Laburnum and C. purpureus, 

 in which the flowers are of a reddish purple, slightly tinged with 

 buff, and are produced in pendent spikes, 8 in. or more long. It 

 was originated in Paris, in the nursery of M. Adam, in 1828; it 

 was introduced into England about 1829, and has been a good 

 deal cultivated. It is a very vigorous, and somewhat erect and fas- 

 tigiate, growing variety, having produced shoots from 6 ft. to 9 ft. long 

 in one season; but, though it has been highly spoken of by some 

 cultivators, in point of beauty, it cannot be recommended. A re- 

 markable fact respecting this hybrid is stated by Mr. Rivers, in the 

 Gard. Mag. for May, 1836. When he was in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, at Paris, in the autumn of the year 1835, a fine plant of 

 this variety was shown to him, which appeared to be half C. pur- 

 pureus. and half C. .Laburnum. On examining the plant more 

 minutely, he ascertained that half the plant had partially returned to 

 the habits of one of its parents, the C. purpureus; while the remain- 

 ing part retained the hybrid character in which, as is well known, 

 the habit and foliage of C'. Laburnum prevail. A similar anomaly 



