CLASS XVII, ORDER III.] - GENISTA. 957 
years the plants are too much weakened), but its young tender tops 
are clipped and given as food to horses, &e. The furze, when full 
erown, affords the best protection of all other plants, from the incle- 
mency of the weather, as the rain is not, except in violent storms, and 
scarcely then, driven through it, and from its branches there are no 
droppings, a circumstance owing to its innumerable spines of attrac- 
tion pointing upwards, and these and its branches are channeled, to 
conduct the rain to its roots! Though a plant so common and 
neglected as it is with us, it is much prized in the garden and green- 
house of many other countries, and is cultivated with great care, and 
considered a valuable addition to their cultivations. The variety P. 
commonly known in gardens as the Irish Furze, or Whin, is remark- 
able for its less rigid branches, and more compact mode of growth ; 
it seldom produces flowers, but is readily propagated by cuttings, as is 
also a double flowered variety, which some years since was found 
wild in Devonshire. 
2. U. na'nus, Forst. (Fig. 1108.) Dwarf Furze. Calyx with 
lanceolate spreading teeth ; bracteas minute, close pressed, the width 
of the peduncle ; branches reclining ; leaves awl-shaped, hairy. 
English Botany, t. 743.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 265.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed 4. vol. i. p. 267.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 77. 
fioot tough and wiry. Shrub from one to two feet long, slender, 
its branches slender, reclining, clothed with soft pubescence, its 
branchlets slender, spiny, furrowed, simple or branched, spreading, 
becoming recurved. Leaves minute, awl-shaped, soon falling away, 
ribbed and downy. flowers small, pale yellow. Peduncle slender. 
Bracteas small, close pressed, not wider than the peduncle, scarcely 
discernible. Calyx yellow, ribbed, scarcely downy, its teeth slender, 
lanceolate, awl-shaped, spreading. Legume lanceolate, downy, turgid. 
Habitat—Dry heaths in various parts of England and Iveland, 
but much less common than the preceding species. 
Shrub ; flowering from August to October. 
This is readily distinguished from the preceding species by its 
smaller size, distinct spreading lanceolate teeth of the less downy and 
yellower calyx, the minute bractea, and the flowers are mostly 
clustered towards the end of the branches, and not scattered upon 
them, as in the last species. 
GENUS V. GENIS’'TA.—Linn. Green-weed. 
Nat. Ord. Paprruiona'cex. LInn. 
Gen. Coan. Calyx two lipped, the upper lip in two deep segments, 
the lower three toothed. eel oblong, straight. Stamens mono- 
delphous. Style subulate, ascending. Legumes flat, compressed, 
