110 LEGUMiNOSiE. [Sarotkamiius. 



Legume scarcely above half an inch long, and about 2^ lines broad, straigbt, a 

 little inflated, shaggy with copious, long, hoary, silky pubescence. Seeds large, a 

 line or more in length, roundish ovoid, slightly compressed, subcordate at the 

 upper end, which is tipped with a large, fleshy, two-lobed chalaza, their colour 

 olive-green, reddish brown or yellowish, very smooth and polished, a few only in 

 each pod usually perfected. 



This species is, I understand, used by the cottagers in Wales as winter food for 

 their cows, which are found by its use at that season to yield as much milk and 

 butter as if fed in fresh pasture. The last year's shoots are collected, and bruised 

 with a wooden mallet in a sort of trough to break the points of the spines, and 

 when so bruised are eaten by the cattle with avidity. A farmer near Haverford 

 West uses the furze for the same purpose, employing a mill turned by water for 

 bruising the fresh shoots. 



2. U. nanus, T. F. Forst. Dwarf or Autumn Furze. Calyx 

 with the pubescence appressed the teeth lanceolate, bracteas 

 minute, wings about the length of the keel. Br. Fl. p. 94. E. 

 B. t. 743. 



In similar places with the last and almost equally common. Fl. August — 

 October. Fr. April, May. Tj . 



Legumes quite similar to those of U. europaeus in form and hairiness, but only 

 about half as large, and about equal to the subtending persistent calyx. Seeds 

 rather smaller than in U. europaeus, otherwise exactly similar, 1, 2, or 3 in each 

 pod usually perfected. 



Dr. Bell-Salter has remarked to me that the lower sepal in the calyx of U. 

 nanus has almost constantly three minute teeth at the apex, the same part in U. 

 europaeus showing but two. Though far from being friendly to the excessive mul- 

 tiplication of species from loose, obscure or variable characters, the crying evil of 

 the present botanical age, we cannot help suspecting that the present may really 

 be a distinct species from U. europmts, though U. promncialis, another assumed 

 species, and stated to be common on the hills around Bristol, is said to be inter- 

 mediate between the two. The spreading calyx-teeth, minute close-pressed brac- 

 teas, smaller flowers with narrower and paler standard, the deflexed spines, hum- 

 bler growth, and different floweriug season are differences that taken conjointly 

 lend greatly to strengthen the above conclusion. 



The reference of Smith in ' English Flora' to Gerarde for this plant is erro- 

 neous, the figure referred to (Ger. Em. 1321, fig. 6) representing I believe Genista 

 scorpius. 



II. Sarothamnus, Wimm. Broom. 



Calyx 2-lipped, without bracteas at its base ; upper lip with 2 

 small teeth, lower one 3-toothed. Standard large, broadly ovate. 

 Keel very blunt, including the stamens, at length deflexed. Tube 

 of the stamens split on the upper side. Style very long, thick- 

 ened upwards and spirally curved. Legume many-seeded, much 

 longer than the calyx. — Leaves simple or trifoliate. 



1. S. scoparius, Wimm. Common Broom. " Branches angled, 

 glabrous, leaves ternate stalked, upper ones simple, leaflets oblong, 

 flowers axillary shortly pedicellate, legumes hairy at the margin." 

 —Br. Fl. p. 95. Spartium, L. : E. B. t. 1339. Cytisus, DC. 



early, if not quite total suspension of flowering takes place however after Midsum- 

 mer till the seed-pods are matured, when a succession of blossoms commences 

 afresh, which in diminished numbers continue to deck the branches till the fol- 

 lowing spring again clothes them in their richest attire. 



