Laburnum

a small tree of the pea family. It is related to the honey locust. It grown wild in the Alps and other mountain chains of Europe. It is much cultivated in parks for the sake of the beautiful, long, hanging racemes of yellow, pea-shaped flowers. It is also called golden chain and bean-trefoil. Tennyson speaks of "laburnum's drooping wells of fire." The seeds contain poisonous alkaloids. They are used in medicine. The heart wood of the laburnum is dark colored and coarse grained, but, like the locust, is hard and durable. It is much in demand among the cabinetmakers, by whom it is sometimes called the "ebony of the Alps."