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LABURNUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 32 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LABURNUM , known botanically as Laburnum vulgare (or Cytisus Laburnum), a See also:

familiar See also:tree of the See also:pea See also:family (See also:Leguminosae) ; it is also known as "See also:golden See also:chain" and "golden See also:rain." It is a native of the mountains of See also:France, See also:Switzerland, See also:southern See also:Germany, See also:northern See also:Italy, &c., has See also:long been cultivated as an ornamental tree throughout See also:Europe, and was introduced into See also:north-See also:east See also:America by the See also:European colonists. See also:Gerard records it as growing in his See also:garden in 1597 under the names of anagyris, laburnum or beane trefoyle (Herball, p. 1239), but the date of its introduction into See also:England appears to be unknown. In France it is called l'aubour—a corruption from laburnum according to Du Hamel—as also See also:arbois, i.e. arc-See also:boil, " the See also:wood having been used by the See also:ancient Gauls for bows. It is still so employed in some parts of the Maconnois, where the bows are found to preserve their strength and See also:elasticity for See also:half a See also:century " (Loudon, See also:Arboretum, ii. 590). Several varieties of this tree are cultivated, differing in the See also:size of the See also:flowers, in the See also:form of the foliage, &c., such as the " See also:oak-leafed " (quercifolium), pendulum, crispum, &c.; See also:var. aureum has golden yellow leaves. One of the most remarkable forms is Cytisus Adami (C. purpurascens), which bears three kinds of blossoms, viz. racemes of pure yellow flowers, others of a See also:purple See also:colour and others of an intermediate See also:brick-red tint. The last are hybrid blossoms, and are sterile; with malformed ovules, though the See also:pollen appears to be See also:good. The yellow and purple " reversions " are fertile. It originated in See also:Paris in 1828 by M. See also:Adam, who inserted a " See also:shield " of the bark of Cytisus purpureus into a stock of Laburnum.

A vigorous shoot from this bud was subsequently propagated. Hence it would appear that the two distinct See also:

species became See also:united by their cambium layers, and the trees propagated therefrom subsequently reverted to their respective parentages in bearing both yellow and purple flowers, but produce as well blossoms of an inter-mediate or hybrid See also:character. Such a result may be called a " See also:graft-hybrid." For full details see See also:Darwin's Animals and See also:Plants under Domestication. The laburnum has highly poisonous properties. The roots See also:taste like See also:liquorice, which is a member of the same family as the laburnum. It has proved fatal to See also:cattle, though See also:hares and rabbits eat the bark of it with avidity (Gardener's See also:Chronicle, 1881, vol. xvi. p. 666). The seeds also are highly poisonous, possessing emetic as well as acrid narcotic principles, especially in a See also:green See also:state. Gerard (loc. cit.) alludes to the powerful effect produced on the See also:system by taking the bruised leaves medicinally. See also:Pliny states that bees will not visit the flowers (N.H. xvi. 31), but this is an See also:error, as bees and butterflies See also:play an important See also:part in the fertilization of the flowers, which they visit for the See also:nectar. The See also:heart wood of the laburnum is of a dark reddish-See also:brown colour, hard and durable, and takes a good See also:polish.

Hence it is much prized by turners, and used with other coloured See also:

woods for See also:inlaying purposes. The laburnum has been called false See also:ebony from this character of its wood.

End of Article: LABURNUM

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