184 THE PEAFLOWEK TRIBE. 



with the calyx about 4 lines long ; the other, under the name of Z7. 

 gallica, is more erect, with the catyx about 5 lines long, and is more 

 frequent in western England, often covering large tracts in the Welsh 

 mountains. 



II. GENISTA. GENISTA. 



Low branching green shrubs or undershrubs, with single (or in 

 some exotic species trifoliolate) leaves and yellow flowers. Calyx with 

 5 teeth, the 2 upper ones much longer than the 3 lower. Standard 

 oblong, keel reflexed after flowering. Stamens all united in a com- 

 plete sheath. Stigma oblique. Pod longer than the calyx, with se- 

 veral seeds. 



A numerous genus chiefly in the Mediterranean region and western 

 Asia, the few British species easily distinguished by their foliage and 

 the shape of the petals. Many exotic species, however, present so 

 much variety, that the general circumscription of the genus, and its 

 distinction from Cytisus and other allied genera, are as yet far from 

 being settled. 



No thorns. Pod narrow, much flattened. 



Corolla and pods without hairs. Branches erect or ascending 1. Dyer's G. 



Corolla and pods hairy. Branches mostly prostrate ... 2. Hairy G. 



Lower branches very thorny. Pod short and inflated ... 3. Needle G. 



I. Dyer's Genista. Genista tinctoria, Linn. (Fig. 225.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 44. Greenweed.) 



Stems woody, branching and decumbent at the base, the flowering 

 branches erect or ascending, 1 to 1^ feet high, hard and stiff, but green. 

 Leaves sessile, from narrow-lanceolate to broadly elliptical or nearly 

 ovate, glabrous or nearly so, and often shining. Flowers in short ra- 

 cemes at the ends of the branches, each one shortly stalked in the axil 

 of a lanceolate bract, with very small bracteoles below the flowers. 

 Calyx short, all the teeth ending in a short, fine point, the upper 2 

 broadly lanceolate, the 3 lower very narrow. Petals about 6 lines long. 

 Pod nearly an inch long, flattened, and quite glabrous . 



In pastures, thickets, and waste places throughout central and 

 southern Europe, across Russian Asia to the Baikal, and northward to 

 southern Sweden. Frequent in the greater part of England, rare 



