8 : GENISTA. [CLASS XVII. ORDER IIT. 
fa) 
On 
or rather turgid, many seeded.—Name from gen, a small shrub, 
in Celtic. 
* Stem unarmed. 
1. G. tineto'ria, Linn. (Fig. 1109.) Dyer's Green-weed, Woad-wazen. 
Stem unarmed; branches erect, green, striated, with elevated lines, 
smooth below, downy above; leaves lanceolate, the margins pube- 
scent ; stipules awl-shaped, minute; flowers racemose; corolla and 
legume smooth. 
English Botany, t. 44.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 262.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 267.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 77. 
fioot woody, slender, widely spreading its branches. Shrub from 
one to two feet high, stem round, smooth, ascending, putting up 
numerous erect green branches, striated with elevated lines, quite 
smooth, except towards the top it is scattered over with close pressed 
pubescence. Leaves of a deep shining green, lanceolate, nearly 
sessile, smooth, with a prominent mid-rib on the under side, and the 
margin rough, with pubescence. Inflorescence a terminal raceme of 
numerous crowded pale yellow flowers, each arising from the axis of 
a small leaf, the peduncles short, with a pair of small awl-shaped 
bracteas at the base of the calyx, smooth. Calyx smooth, angular, 
its teeth deeply cut. Corolla smooth, the keel as long as the 
vexillum. Zegume nearly cylindrical, containing numerous seeds. 
Habitat.—Dry pastures, thickets, and borders of fields frequent ; 
in England and the lowlands of Scotland, and between Killiney Hill 
and Bray, Ireland. 
Shrub ; flowering in July and August. 
The Dyer’s Green-weed, or Whin, is frequently used to produce a 
yellow dye, and it is often mixed with woad, (Jsatis tinctoria), when 
the wool is intended to be dyed a green colour. ‘The whole plant has 
a bitter unpleasant taste, which is said to be communicated to the milk 
and butter of the cows, which feed upon it in pastures when it grows 
in too great abundance, in which e¢ase its overgrowth must be pre- 
vented by destroying the plants. The seeds will produce both 
vomiting and purging if taken in large doses, but a drachm and a half 
of them powdered is said to act as a mild aperient. The small 
twigs and tops made into a decoction are said to be a useful diuretic, 
and have been found useful in some dropsical affections; but as a 
medicine it is scarcely ever employed. 
2. G. pilo'sa, Linn (Fig. 1110.) Hairy Green-weed. Stem un- 
armed, procumbent; leaves in clusters, oblong lanceolate, those under 
side the branches, peduncles, and calyx, clothed with close pressed 
silky hairs ; flowers axillary, the keel and vexillum silky ; legume 
downy. 
English Botany, t. 208.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 262 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 267.—Lindley, Synopsis, p 7 
.—Hooker, 
it 
