Note 1001 — BOOK XIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXOTIC TREES, AND AN ACCOUNT OF UNGUENTS.
John Bostock translation
From the various statements of ancient authors, Fée has come to the conclusion that this name was given to two totally different productions. The cytisus which the poets speak of as grateful to bees and goats, and sheep, he takes to be the Medicago arborea of Linnæus, known to us as Medic trefoil, or lucerne; while the other, a tree with a black wood, he considers identical with the Cytisus laburnum of Linnæus, the laburnum, or false ebony tree.