ANAGYRIS, STINKING BEAN-TREFOIL: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the decandria class of plants; and, in the natural method, ranking under the 32d order, Papilionaceæ. The characters are: The calyx is a bell-shaped perianthium: The corolla is papilionaceous; the vexillum cordated, straight, emarginated, and twice as long as the calyx; the alæ ovate, and longer than the vexillum; the carina straight and very long: The stamina consist of 10 filaments; the anther simple: The pistillum has an oblong germ, a simple stylus, and a villous stigma: The pericarpium is an oblong legumen: The seeds are six or more, and kidney-shaped.
Of this genus there is but one species, the fetida, which grows naturally in the southern parts of Europe. It is a shrub which usually rises to the height of eight or ten feet, and produces its flowers in April or May. These are of a bright yellow colour, growing in spikes, somewhat like the laburnum.
Culture. This plant may be propagated either by seeds, or by laying down the tender branches in the spring; but the first method is preferable. The seeds should be sown toward the end of March in pots filled with light earth, and plunged in a gentle hot-bed. The plants usually appear in a month, when they should be gradually inured to the open air, that they may be hardened before winter. In the autumn and winter, they must be sheltered under a hot-bed frame: the spring following, they must be transplanted, each into a separate small pot, placed in a sheltered situation, and again removed into a frame to shelter them during the following winter. The second spring after the plants come up, some of them may be taken out of the pots, and planted in a border near a south-wall, where, if they are protected in winter, they may remain.