LEGUMINOSAE— CYTISUS 



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8. Cytisiis L. 



Shrub with trif oliolate or unifoliolate leaves ; showy flowers, chiefly in 

 terminal racemes; calyx 2-lipped, with short teeth; standard ovate or orbicular; 

 keels straight or curved ; anthers large and small ; ovary with many-ovuled, and 

 incurved style; pod flat, oblong or linear. About 40 species, natives of Europe, 

 Western Asia, and Northern Africa. 



Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link. Broom 



A stiff, nearly glabrous shrub ; elongated, straight, angled branches ; lower 

 leaves 3-foliolate, obovate; leaflets which are mucronate-tipped; upper leaves 

 sessile, often unifoliolate; flowers bright yellow, in elongated leafy racemes. 



Distribution. Along the seacoast of Nova Scotia to Virginia, and very com- 

 mon along the Pacific Coast. 



Poisonous properties. The Scotch Broom {Cytisus scoparius) common on 

 the Pacific and Atlantic coast but naturalized from Europe, contains the alka- 

 loid cytisin C Hj^N,0 and is poisonous. Blyth records 400 cases of poison- 

 ing from this. The symptoms in stock are slavering, vomiting, staggering, and 

 general paralysis. Cytisin, occurring in many of the Genisteae, was found, in 

 1818, in Laburnum anagyroides and since then, has been found in many other 

 species of the genus Cytisus and in Ulex europaeus, Sophora sp., Thermopsis 

 sp., Baptisia tinctoria, Anagyris foetida, Lotus suaveolens, Colutea cruenta, and 

 Euchresia Horsfieldii. Some species of the genera Genista and Cytisus do not 

 contain cytisin. Cytisus scoparius also contains a volatile alkaloid spartein 

 CjjHjjNj, a single drop of which, according to Blyth, killed a rabbit that 

 showed symptoms similar to those of nicotin poisoning. 



9. Melilotus Tourn 



Annual or biennial herbs with trifoliolate leaves; small white or yellow 

 flowers in racemes with the odor of cumarin; teeth of the calyx short and' 

 nearly equal, shorter than the pod; corolla deciduous with obovate or oblong 



Fig. 302. Flowers of Sweet Qover (.Melilotus alba). 1, Standard above. 2, Showing- 

 wings and keel. 3, Showing stamens and pistil in keel. 



