Brooms and Genistas 



totally insufficient to carry on the life processes of the 

 plant; hence the supple stems develop green tissue and 

 water pores (or stomata), and, in fact, do much of the 

 work that should be wholly done by the leaves. The 

 reason for this is economy, it is a pure measure of 

 thrift, for the Broom is fitted by Nature to grow in 

 poor dry soils where food is scarce and moisture small, 

 and this fact should be remembered in cultivation. 



The yellow flowers, so large in proportion to the 

 leaves, are of the pea type the Broom belongs to the 

 LeguminoscB family and the corolla is made up of a 

 big upstanding " standard " petal, two wings, and a 

 keel composed of two petals, the wings and keel in a 

 newly opened flower being ingeniously interlocked. (If 

 a flower be dissected the blunt hooks and mound and 

 socket can be seen at the base of wing and keel 

 petals.) Within the keel lie ten stamens, five long, five 

 shorter, the lower part of their filaments being united 

 into a tube, the upper part being distinct. Inside the 

 tube is the pod, as yet in miniature, and carrying a 

 column longer than the longest stamens. No honey 

 lies in the flower, but many kinds of bees visit it, and 

 during their visits an interesting little ceremony is 

 performed. As in the gorse, when one alights, straddling 

 the keel, its weight depresses both keel and wings, 

 but their interlocking gives under the shock and they 

 fall limply, causing the ovary column and the stamens 



