104 THE PEAFLOWER TRIBE. [Cytisus. 



III. CYTISUS. BROOM. 



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

 leaflets. Calyx campanulate, 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. Pod flat, much longer than 

 the calyx. Seeds several, with a strophiole at the hilum. 



A large genus, extending over Europe and the Mediterranean region 

 to the Canary Islands. The most constant character to distinguish it 

 from Genista is the strophiole of the seed, but in the case of most 

 species it is also known by the 3-foliolate, not simple leaves, broader 

 petals, &c. The only British species has been by some modern 

 botanists separated under the name of Sarothamnus, chiefly on account 

 of the spiral style ; but some European species show a gradual passage 

 from the long spiral to the short and straight style. 



The Irish Broom of our gardens is the 0. patens from Portugal, not a 

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

 Several other south European true Cytisi are cultivated in our gardens. 



1. C. scoparius, Link. (fig. 232). Common B. — 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 leaflets 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 hand- 

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

 standard broadly orbicular, the keel often deflected as in Genista. Style 

 very long and spirally incurved. Pod 1 J 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. Sarothamnus scoparius, Koch. 



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

 but extending more sparingly to its eastern limits, and northward into 

 southern Sweden. Common in Britain. Fl. spring and early summer. 

 [A prostrate, var. (prostrata, Hanb.), occurs in Cornwall and the Channel 

 Islands.] 



IV. ONONIS. ONONIS. 



Herbs or low undershrubs, with pinnately trifoliolate, or rarely 

 simple leaves ; the leaflets generally toothed ; the stipules leafy, 

 adhering to the leafstalk ; the flowers solitary, on axillary peduncles, 

 often forming terminal leafy racemes. Calyx with 5 narrow segments. 

 Standard large and striate. Keel terminating in a pointed beak. 

 Stamens all united in a sheath. Pod inflated, with few seeds. 



A rather numerous genus, chiefly from the Mediterranean region. 

 The toothed leaves are like those of the Trifolium group, whilst the 

 stamens are monadelphous, as in Genista and its allies. 

 A much branched perennial or undershrub, often thorny . . . 1. 0. arvensis. 

 A small, erect annual 2. 0. reclinata. 



1. O. arvensis, Linn. (fig. 233). Restharrow. — Very variable in 

 aspect, generally a low, spreading, much branched undershrub, 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 



