GENISTA  , in

botany, a genus of about eighty species of shrubs belonging to the natural order Leguminosae, and natives of Europe, western Asia and North Africa . Three are native in Britain . G. anglica is the needle-furze or petty whin; found on heaths and moist moors, a spinous plant with. slender spreading branches to 2 ft. long, very small leaves and short racemes of small yellow papilionaceous flowers . The pollen is emitted in a shower when an insect alights on it . G. tinctoria, dyer's green-weed, the flowers of which yield a yellow dye, has no spines . Other species are grown on rock-work or as green-house plants .