It rises with several stems to the height of a foot or upwards: the leaves are opposite, or in threes, remote, lanceolate, stem-clasping, and obscurely three-nerved, with scabrous margins, occasioned by minute, upwardly-directed serrulations, which at the base of the leaf are decurrent, and form four or six roughened lines on the stem: the flowers are irregularly whorled; but the uppermost whorl is by much the largest; each blossom is of a rich deep purple colour, ventricose, and opens very little at the mouth, where it is divided into ten incurving segments, every other of which is of a much paler colour than the rest, broader, unequally bifid, and minutely lacerated: the empalement is five-cleft, and its segments are linear-lance-shaped, with minutely ciliated edges, after the manner of the edges of the leaves. The living specimen from which our figures were made, was obligingly communicated to us by the Hon. Mr. Irby, of Farnham Royal, Bucks. [Illustration] PLATE CCCCXIX. GENISTA LUSITANICA. _Portugal Genista._ CLASS XVII. ORDER IV. _DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Chives. ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. CALYX bilabiatus: 2-3 dentibus, binis superioribus brevissimis. Vexillum oblongum a pistillo staminibusque deorsum reflexum. EMPALEMENT two-lipped: with 2-3 teeth, the two uppermost very short. The standard oblong, and reflexed downwards from the chives and pointal. SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &C. GENISTA, caule aphyllo, spinis decussatis. _Willd. Sp. Pl. 2. 946._--_Ait. Hort. Kew. 2. 16._ GENISTA, with a leafless stem, and decussated spines. SCORPIUS secundus. _Clus. Hist. 1. p. 107._ REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. The empalement. 2. The standard. 3. One of the wings. 4. The keel. 5. The chives. 6. The seed-bud and pointal. 7. The same magnified. The Portugal Genista is a very spiny, and almost leafless shrub, of bushy growth; and although very well known to most of the old Botanists, does not appear to have been cultivated in the British gardens until the year 1771; when, according to Mr. Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis, it was introduced by Mrs. Primmet. It is a native of Portugal and Spain, but is sufficiently hardy to resist the cold of our ordinary winters, if planted in a sheltered situation: yet is extremely liable to be injured, or even destroyed, in those which take place with rigour and severity: but as it very frequently produces good seeds, a supply of it is not difficult to be kept up that way. The best time of sowing them is spring, and they will require some slight protection from frost while young. The plant blooms freely from March till May, and when decorated with its golden flowers, makes a very ornamental appearance in the shrubbery; in which, although it has been so long in cultivation, we cannot help regretting that it but seldom occurs: and we venture to recommend it along with G. germanica (a closely allied species) to the further attention of our cultivating friends.