XXV. LEGUMINA‘CEE: GENI’/STA. 203 
Tn Italy and the South of France a very good cloth 
is manufactured from the fibres of this plant. Both in 
Spain and France, the shoots are used for forming 
baskets, and for tying up vines and other fruit trees. 
The bees are said to be very fond of the flowers; and 
the seeds are eaten with great avidity by poultry, par- 
tridges, &c. Medicinally, the flowers and leaves, in 
infusion, act as an emetic, or, in a larger quantity, as an 
aperient. In Britain, the plant is solely regarded as an 
ornamental shrub. Seeds are produced in abundance, 
and they will come up in any soil that is tolerably dry. 
In the nursery, they ought to be transplanted every year, 
as they are apt to form long taproots and very few fibres, 
Genus VI. 
‘Gl 
GENUSTA Lam. Tue Gentsta. Lin. Syst. Monadélphia Decandria. 
Identification. Lam. Dict., 2. p. 616.; Ill. t. 619.; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 145. ; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 148. 
Synonymes. Genista, et Spartium, spec. Lin.; Genét, Fr.; Ginster, Ger. ; Ginestra, Ital. 
Gen. Char. Calyx bilabiate, upper lip bipartite, lower one tridentate, or 5- 
lobed, the three lower lobes nearly joined to the apex. Vewillum oblong-oval. 
Carina oblong, straight, not always containing the stamens and pistils. Sta- 
mens monadelphous. Legume compressed, many-seeded. (Don’s Ail.) 
Leaves simple or compound, alternate, rarely opposite, stipulate, decidu- 
ous or sub-evergreen ; lanceolate, linear, or trifoliolate. 2¥owers terminal or 
axillary, yellow. 
305. Spartium jinceum. 
The hardy species are deciduous or sub-evergreen shrubs, generally with 
trifoliolate leaves and yellow flowers ; there is a great sameness of character 
among them, and, though many are quite distinct, yet it is highly probable that 
the greater number now recorded as species are only varieties. They are 
chiefly natives of Europe; but a few are found in the North of Africa. As 
they grow rapidly, and flower freely, especially on soils not wet at bottom, 
they are desirable piants for newly formed shrubberies, but in general they 
are not of long duration. A number of the species were formerly included 
under the genus Spartium and some under Cytisus, from which they have 
been separated by Lamarck, whose arrangement, as modified by DeCandolle, 
we have adopted in the following enumeration. 
61. Unarmed. Leaves all, or for the most part, trifoliolate. 
@ 1. G. parvirLo’RA Dec. The small- 
flowered Genista. 
er eas Dec. Prod., 2. p. 145.; Don’s Mill., 
Synonyme. Spartium parviflbrum Vent. Hort: Cels. 
Eee. Vent. Hort. Cels.,t. 87.; and our fig. 306. 
Spec. Char.,§c. Leaf trifoliolate, the petiole 
very short ; and the leaflets usually deci- Sa 
duous, very narrow, glabrous. Flowers 
in lengthened terminal racemes. Le- ‘ 
gumes compressed, 1—3-seeded, rather 
pubescent, being covered with minute 
closely pressed down, slightly spread- 
ing. (Dec. Prod.) A deciduous shrub. 
Levant, near the Gulf of Mundania. \ 
306. Genfsta parviflora. 
