PAPItlOKACEJ!. 169 



III. BROOra. SAROTHAMNUS. 



Shrubs, with stiff, green branches, the leaves mostly with 3 digitate leaf- 

 lets. Calyx campaniilate, with 2 short, broad lips, minutely toothed at the 

 top. Petals broad, the keel obtuse and slightly incurved. Stamens all 

 united into a complete sheath. Style very long and spirally incurved. 

 Pod flat, much longer than the calyx, with many seeds. 



A genus of very few species, chiefly from western Europe, separated by 

 raTiher slight characters from the exotic genus Cytisus, but now generally 

 adopted. 



1. Common Broom. Sarothamnus scoparins, Winun. 

 (Spartinm, Eng. Bot. t. 1339.) 



A shrub, of 3 to 5 feet, glabrous or nearly so, with numerous long, 

 straight and erect, green, wiry branches prominently angled. Lower leaves 

 shortly stalked, with 3 small, obovate leaflets ; upper leaves sessile ; the leaf- 

 lets often reduced to a single one. Flowers large, bright yellow, solitary or 

 in pairs, on slender pedicels, in the axils of the old leaves, forming handsome 

 leafy racemes along the upper branches. Petals all broad, the standard 

 broadly orbicular, the keel often deflected as in Genista. Pod 1^ to 2 inches 

 long, flat, hairy on the edges, but glabrous on the sides, the seeds attached 

 to a line considerably within the edge of the pod. 



On dry, hilly wastes and bushy places, chiefly in western Europe, but 

 extending more spaiingly to its eastern limits, and northward into southern 

 Sweden. Common in England, Ireland, and the greater part of Scotland. 

 Fl. spring and early svmmer. 



The Irish Broom of our gardens is the S. patens from Portugal, not a 

 native of Ireland. The Spanish Broom belongs to the genus Spartium. 

 Other shrubs called Brooms in our gardens are species of Cytisus. 



IV. ONONIS. ONONIS. 



Herbs or low imdershrubs, with pinnately trifoUolate, or rarely simple 

 leaves ; the leaflets generally toothed ; the stipules leaiy, adhering to the leaf- 

 stalk ; the flowers sohtary, on axillary peduncles, often forming terminal leafy 

 racemes. Calyx with 5 narrow segments. Standard large and striate. 

 Keel terminating in a pointed beak. Stamens aU united in a sheath. Pod 

 inflated, with few seeds. 



A rather numerous genus, chiefly from, the Mediterranean region, and 

 not extending far into Asia. The denticulate leaves are hke those of the 

 Clover group, whilst the stamens are monadelphous, as in Genista and its 

 alHes. 



Much branched perennial or undershrnb, often thorny 1. Sestharrow O. 



Bmall, erect annual 2. Small O. 



1. Restharro'^ Ononis. Ononis arvensis, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 682, and Suppl. t. 2659. O. campestris, Bab. Man.) 



Very variable in aspect, generally a low, spreading, much branched under- 



ehrub, often rooting at the base or creeping underground, sometimes nearly 



erect, a foot high or more, rarely glabrous, usually thinly clothed with soft 



spreading hairs, and more or less glutinous ; the hairs either covering the 



