Low branching sometimes thorny shrubs, mainly with 1-foliolate leaves, and showy clustered yellow flowers. Calyx 2-lipped; teeth long. Standard oval or ovate; wings oblong; keel oblong, deflexed, the claws of its petals adnate to the uncleft sheath of the monadelphous stamens; anthers alternately long and short. Ovary sessile, several-ovuled; style incurved at the apex. Pod various, flat in our species, several-seeded. Seeds not strophiolate. [Celtic, gen, a small bush.]

About 80 species, natives of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, the following typical.

1. Genista Tinctdria L. Dyeweed Or Greenweed. Woad-Waxen. Base Broom

Fig. 2466

Genista tinctoria L. Sp. Pl. 710. 1753.

Branching from the base, not thorny, the sterile shoots decumbent, the flowering ones erect, stiff, 1°-2° high, branched above, slightly pubescent. Leaves 1-foliolate, sessile, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 1/2'-1 1/2' long, glabrous or with scattered hairs, acute at the apex, narrowed at the base, entire, shining; stipules none; racemes numerous, terminal, 1'-2' long, few-flowered; bracts ovate-lanceolate, acute; flowers yellow, nearly sessile, about 6" long; calyx bracteolate at the base, its 3 lower teeth narrower than the 2 upper; pod about 1' long, flat, glabrous.

On dry hills, Maine and Massachusetts to eastern New York. Naturalized from Europe. Native also of northern Asia. Summer. Known also as wood-wax. green-wood, dyer's-broom. dyer's green-weed, dyer's-whin and alleluia.