300 Mr. C. C. Babington on Ulex. 



maceration in water. Each may be described as resembling 

 a cabbage in miniature, being composed of numerous leaves 

 overlapping each other and becoming more deUcate toward 

 the centre. In each specimen examined stamens and pistils 

 were found in the centre ; they were, however, of very small 

 size, and such as they are in a very young flower-bud ; the 

 anthers appeared to be completely formed, but almost sessile ; 

 the pistils were apparently perfect, but so delicate that the 

 shghtest injury destroyed their form. It is not improbable 

 that these fasciculi of leaves possess the power of striking root 

 under favourable circumstances. Sir W. J. Hooker, in the 

 Appendix to one of Parry's Voyages, states that the plant is 

 propagated by means of these bodies. 



XXXV. — On Ulex. By Charles C. Babington, M.A., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., &c.* 



The possession of a specimen of U. provincialis (Lois.) from 

 Marseilles, and the good fortune of meeting with a flowering 

 plant of U. strictus (Mack.) in the Bath Botanical Garden, 

 have induced me to draw up the following short account of 

 the species belonging to this genus, and illustrate it with out- 

 line figures of the petals and spines. Although two of the 

 species {europaus and nanus) are peculiarly common in En- 

 gland, yet I have found that few of the younger of our bota- 

 nists are acquainted with their true distinctive characters ; 

 indeed so much uncertainty exists that a very common variety 

 of nanus is almost always considered as a form of europceus. 

 The other two species belonging to that section oiUlex to which 

 this paper refers, are amongst the least known European 

 plants, one of them {strictus) being confined to a few spots in 

 Ireland, and rarely flowering, and the other {australis) inha- 

 biting parts of the South of France, Spain, and Morocco (?). 

 The whole genus is confined to the South-western parts of 

 Europe and the North-west point of Africa, having its most 

 northerly limit in Scotland, and its eastern not reaching the 

 centre of Germany. 



• Read to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, May 14, 1840. 



