GENISTA. 
123 
often from great distances, bundles of u Giesta ” to be used for 
heating ovens, &c. 
Doubtless originally introduced into Mad., though proved by 
an old spec, in the BH. to have been existing there nearly 100 
years ago, and now diffused so extensively, both by culture and 
self-propagation, as to appear perfectly indigenous : flooding 
the mountain-sides for miles with seas of golden blossoms in 
the spring and early summer. It is remarkable that this well- 
known pi., though found in the Azores, as in Mad., has not 
occurred to either Webb or myself in any one of the Canary 
Islands. Nor is its presence in them positively proved by Von 
Buch’s alleged smooth-podded state of it ( Sar . scoparius var. 
glabratus= Cytisus glabratus Link, WB. ii. 59), “ confined to 
one small spot at the aqueduct above Orotava ” in Tenerife : 
this pi. being possibly something altogether different, perhaps 
Sar. arboreus (Desf.), and at all events merely of local or chance 
occurrence from temporary cultivation. Brotero also omits it 
altogether in his Flora Lusit. as indigenous to Portugal. It 
may therefore be presumed to have been introduced into Mad. 
from either England or Scotland. 
The fine and delicate basket-work peculiar to Madeira is 
manufactured from the slender peeled twigs of the present pi. 
Since writing the above, I have received from my zealous 
and able botanical friend S r Moniz, examples of a very remark- 
able and I believe hitherto unnoticed var. /3, albiflora, with 
pure w. fl. They were gathered by him in June last (1861) 
at the Uaba 9 al. Except in the col. of the fl., I can detect 
no difference whatever from the ordinary y.-fl. Mad. pi. It 
remains to be ascertained whether this singular albino var., 
which must have originated on the spot from the common y.-fl. 
sort, can be propagated regularly or otherwise by seed. In a 
former letter (Nov. 2, 1860) S r Moniz speaks of it as having 
been described to him by its first observer, S r Cimha, as a 
single pi. 
4. Genista L. 
§ Upper lip of cal. bipartite. — Teline Webb. Genista Ge- 
nuince Koch. 
* Unarmed ; l. all ternate . 
1. G. maderensis Webb. 
U narmed dark gr. leafy ; branches stout stiff and wood v 
