Spartium. Spartium junceum, Spanish broom.
Spartium. Spartium junceum L. Spanish Broom. (Fam. Leguminosae.) —A small shrub, indigenous in the south of Europe, and cultivated in our gardens as an ornamental plant. The flowers are large, yellow, and of an agreeable odor. Spanish broom, in its medicinal properties closely resembles Scoparius, but appears to be from five to six times more active, 6 Gm. of the dried plant, given in infusion, having produced very violent poisoning; serious results have been produced by the substitution of the Spanish for the true broom. The dried flowers are readily differentiated, those of the true broom having a small, bell-shaped calyx with two unequal lobes, the upper of which is bidentate, the lower minutely tridentate, and the style always rolled, while in Spartium junceum the calyx is deeply cleft to the base on one side only, and the style is deeply rolled.
The symptoms produced by overdoses are vomiting and purging, with renal irritation. The seeds have been used to a considerable extent in dropsy in doses of from ten to fifteen grains (0.65-1.0 Gm.) three times a day in the form of tincture.
