Goronilla and Golutea 



and is fertilised from the pollen on the abdomen of the 

 visiting insect. When the petals wither and fall the tiny 

 green pods hang, and at first sight appear as though they 

 would be of the familiar type, but very quickly they inflate 

 and their wall becomes thinner, drier, tinged with red, 

 and in a state of tension, and altogether they form a 

 remarkable sight. Hence a Colutea may be said to have 

 two periods of attractiveness in the season in June, when 

 the golden flowers make it gay, and in August, when the 

 peculiar bladder fruits make it notable; indeed, it is as 

 often planted for the sake of the second as for the first. 

 Many a traveller entering London by the Midland Rail- 

 way in late summer has had his curiosity aroused by the 

 bladder-hung shrubs that dot the embankment right up 

 to the very borders of the great city. For and herein 

 is still another asset of this plant the Bladder Senna 

 will thrive where other shrubs would starve ; dry poor soil 

 comes not amiss to it ; even up to the very edge of the 

 crater of Mount Vesuvius it finds a foothold. Coronilla, 

 too, likes a dry soil, but it has not quite the ascetic 

 hardiness of its relative. Both are natives of central and 

 southern Europe. It is difficult to say when they were 

 first brought to England. Gerard, in 1596, speaks of 

 both as growing in his garden. 



Another Coronilla shrub, C. juncea, is sometimes 

 grown as a curiosity. It has rush-like branches (juncus 

 a rush), almost destitute of leaves, and yellow flowers 



183 



