"Down with the rosemary and bays, Down with the misseltoe; Instead of holly, now upraise The holly hitherto did sway; Let box now domineer, Until the dancing Easter-day, Or Easter's eve appear: Then youthful box, which now hath grace Your houses to renew, Grown old, surrender must his place Unto the crisped yew. When yew is out, then birch comes in, And many flowers beside, Both of a fresh and fragrant kin To honour Whitsuntide: Green rushes then, and sweetest bents, With cooler oaken boughs, Come in for comely ornaments To readorn the house." BROOM. SPARTIUM. LEGUMINOSE. DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. French, le genêt*; le genêt a balais.-Italian, sparzio; scopa; ginestra; scornabecco: all referring to its use as besoms. THE Brooms are very ornamental shrubs, with few leaves, but an abundance of brilliant and elegant flowers: they strike a deep root, but are too handsome to be rejected where * The family of Plantagenet took their name from this shrub, which they wore as their device. It has been said that Fulk, the first Earl of Anjou of that name, being stung with remorse for some wicked action, went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as a work of atonement; where, being soundly scourged with broom-twigs, which grew plentifully on the spot, he ever after took the surname of Plantagenet, or Broom-plant, which was retained by his noble posterity. room can be afforded for them. They must be planted in There are three species a pot or tub of considerable depth. with white, and one with violet-coloured flowers: the others have all yellow blossoms. The violet-coloured has no leaves, and is usually called the Leafless Broom: it was found by Pallas in the Wolga Desert. The Spanish Broom has yellow-the Portugal, white blossoms. The white-flowered, one-seeded kind, is a native both of Spain and Portugal. "It converts the most barren spot into a fine odoriferous garden," says Mr. Martyn, speaking of this species. All the species here named will endure the cold without shelter: they do not like much wet. Our common Broom surpasses many of the foreign kinds in beauty indeed, few shrubs are more magnificent than this evergreen, with its profusion of bright golden blossoms. "On me such beauty summer pours And when the frost is in the sky, They are the delight of the bees: and the young buds, while yet green, are pickled like capers. It is said that the branches are of service in tanning leather, and that a kind of coarse cloth is manufactured from them. The young shoots are mixed with hops in brewing; and the old wood is valuable to the cabinet-maker. Brooms are made from this shrub; and, from their name, it is supposed to have .furnished the first that were made. "Where yon brown hazels pendent catkins bear, And broom's green shoots in besoms neat combines." SCOTT of Amwell. In the north of Great Britain it is used for thatching cottages, corn, and hay-ricks, and making fences. In some parts of Scotland, where coals and wood are scarce, whole fields are sown with it for fuel. But the Scotch have long been aware of the poetry as well as the utility of this beautiful shrub. The burden of one of their most popular songs is well known: "O the broom, the bonny bonny broom, The broom of the Cowden-knows; For sure so soft, so sweet a bloom Elsewhere there never grows." Burns lauds it, too, in one of his songs, written to an Irish air, which was a great favourite with him, called the Humours of Glen: "Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon, Where the blue-bell and gowan lurk lowly unseen; ""Twas that delightful season, when the broom WORDSWORTH'S POEMS, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 265. Thomson speaks of it as a favourite food of kine. It flowers in May and June. "Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed, Her blossoms.” COWFER'S TASK. Broom makes a pleasant shade for a lounger in the summer: it seems to embody the sunshine, while it intercepts its heat: "To noontide shades incontinent he ran, Where purls the brook with sleep-inviting sound; as poisonous, yet most some are particularly The Base Broom, or Mr. Horace Smith speaks of it of the species are eaten by cattle recommended as a food for kine. Green-weed, is said to embitter the milk of the cows that eat of it; but, from the bitterness of the plant itself, they commonly refuse it. 66 my herd Cannot be browsed upon the mount, for so Virgil speaks of it as a food for cattle : AMARYNTHUS. "salices, humilesque genistæ, Aut illæ pecori frondem, aut pastoribus umbras GEORGIC ii. "Willows and humble broom afford either browse for the cattle, or shade for the shepherds, and hedges for the fields, and food for bees." MARTYN'S TRANSLATION. The poet is supposed to intend the Spanish Broom in this passage, which grows plentifully in some parts of Italy, and of which the Italians weave the slender branches into baskets. Virgil speaks of it in another passage as the "bending broom." In England, the Broom has generally a kind of sharp and arrow-like straightness; in Italy, where it rises higher than in this country, the branches being very slender, do not support themselves so stiffly Clorin, in the Faithful Shepherdess, reproves "the lazy clowns That feed their heifers in the budded brooms." Mr. Seward observes, in a note upon this passage, that this instance of laziness is taken from Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar for February, and supposes it to mean that they leave their herds among the broom, which grows on the worst soil, instead of driving them into the best pastures *. "So loitering live you little herd-grooms, Keeping your beasts in the budded brooms." SPENSER. Dr. Hall complains much of the negligence of the farmers in taking so little heed to check the growth of thistles, furze, broom, &c. even in the fields in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. "It is well known," says he, "that the seeds of thistles, rag-weed, and the like, are blown with the wind, and that though furze, as Lord Kaimes observes, is the only shrub in Britain that flowers all the year round; and broom in bloom is one of the most beautiful shrubs we have, and appears like gold at a distance, yet they ought, if possible, to be completely extirpated out of those parts of the country where sheep are not reared. And it is to be hoped the day is not far distant when the farmers who allow thistles, ragweed, and the like, to seed on their fields, without having attempted to prevent them, will be subjected to a penalty +." Browne alludes to the use of Broom in thatching: Among the flags below, there stands his coate, A simple one, thatched o'er with reed and broom; It hath a kitchen, and a several room For each of us." BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS. A Russian poet speaks of the Broom as a tree: * See Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. iv. p. 127. |