CY'TISUS NI'GRICANS. 
BLACK-ROOTED CYTISUS. 
Class. Order. 
DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUM1NOS2E. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
Austria. 
3 feet. 
June, July. 
Perennial. 
in 1731. 
No. 149. 
Cytisus is a term supposed to have been derived, 
indirectly, from Cythnus, an extremely fruitful island 
of the Grecian Archipelago, containing about sixteen 
thousand Greek Christians, and which exhibits 
vestiges of an ancient city of extraordinary splen- 
dour. It is now called Thermia. Nigricans, from 
the Latin, indicative of its black roots. 
This species of Cytisus is a particularly showy 
little shrub, and is well suited to the purpose of 
mingling with low American plants. Its slender 
branches exhibit a beautiful luxuriance of blossoms 
in the middle of summer, and sometimes again in the 
autumn. It is deciduous, and of rather bare appear- 
ance in winter, — 
“ But let the months go round, a few short months, 
And all shall be restored. These naked shoots, 
Barren as lances, among which the wind 
Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes, 
Shall put their graceful foliage on again.” Cowper. 
This species of Cytisus may readily be propaga- 
ted from seeds, which should be sown in March. 
The young plants should be sheltered from severe 
frosts during the first winter of their growth. 
38 Ilort. Kew. 2, v. 4, 319. 
