cytisusn.
/ˈsɪtɪsəs/ Botany.
(a) A shrubby plant mentioned by the Greek and Roman writers, as useful for fodder; now identified with the Shrubby Medic, Medicago arborea. (b) Botany. Adopted by Linnæus as the name of a genus of leguminous shrubs and trees, including the common Broom (though this has by many been made the type of a separate genus), the Laburnum, and other species, one of which ( C. racemosus), a well-known early flowering greenhouse and window plant with a profusion of yellow flowers, is the Cytisus of florists.By early writers the name was often applied to other shrubby leguminous plants.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > shrubs > broom and allies > [noun]
broomc1000
genistaa1398
junipera1425
broom-treea1450
cytisus1548
French broom1548
besom-weed1578
green broom?1578
scorpion-thorn1760
retama1764
retem1777
broom-wood1810
scorpion1840
scorpion plant1866
ginestra1884
scorpion-broom1884
tree lucerne1933
1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. C.vij Cytisus groweth plentuously in mount Appennine..I haue not sene it in Englande. Cytisus may be called in englishe tretrifoly.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. lxi Cytisus is a shrubbe or bush with leaues, not muche vnlyke Fenugreke, or Sene; the flowers be faire and yellow, almost like to Broome flowers.
1709 W. Congreve tr. Ovid Art of Love iii. 229 There, Tamarisks with thick-leav'd Box are found, And Cytissus, and Garden Pines, abound.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xxv. 365 Evergreen Cytisus has the flowers coming out singly from the side of the stalk.
1855 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Eclogues i, in tr. Virgil Wks. I. 8 No [more], my goats..the blooming cytisus..shall you browse.
1892 Star 14 May 1/7 Marguerites..wave gaily above rows of drooping cytisus and hanging grass.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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