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Anthyllis hermanniae L.

Modern name

Anthyllis hermanniae L.

A deciduous shrub of low, bushy habit, 112 to 2 ft, perhaps more, high; branches crooked or zigzag, covered with short greyish down, and ending in a spine. Leaves simple (or occasionally trifoliolate), linear-obovate, 12 to 1 in. long, 18 in. or less wide, clothed more or less with silky hairs; apex rounded; base tapering. Flowers yellow, three to five together in axillary, very shortly stalked clusters, each flower about 13 in. long; calyx green, tubular, 16 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 2576.

Native of the Mediterranean region from Corsica eastwards to Turkey. It was in cultivation early in the eighteenth century, and is said to have been not uncommon up to the great frost of 1739-40, when most of the plants were destroyed. It is grown at Kew on a wall of the Herbaceous Ground and is quite hardy there. It has also been grown at Kew in the open ground and although occasionally injured on the upper growth in severe winters was never killed. It is a much-branched, twiggy bush of greyish aspect, flowering freely in June and July, and very pretty then. It is a suitable plant for a sunny place in the rock garden. As it rarely ripens its seeds here, it has to be increased by cuttings. They should be put in sandy soil under cloches in August.


Genus

Anthyllis

Other species in the genus