LEGUMENIFERZ. 13 
for the Holy Land; but the plant has been from a remote period the badge of 
Bretagne. May not it have been assumed by Henry on account of his claim to the 
sovereignty of that country, which he afterwards obtained. 
The Broom frequently occurs as an ornament in the wardrobe rolls both of 
England and France. We read that the queen of Richard IT. had a dress of rosemary 
and broom in gold and silk on a white ground. A Broom plant, his own heraldic 
device, with its open pods despoiled of its seeds, ornaments the tomb of this same 
lady’s husband in Westminster Abbey. Antiquarians have spent not a little learning 
and research on the origin of this simple emblem. We are inclined to agree with the 
charming authoress of ‘‘ Weeds and Wild Flowers,” who says, ‘They have overlooked 
the simple beauty of this design—they have not felt with the designer the truthful 
force of the silent record. The ripened seed had fallen from its husk ; the germ of 
immortality was parted from its shell; the body was laid in the dust and the soul 
was called into a life eternal ere the marble tomb was raised.” Rarely, indeed, does 
the sculptured shield or stately tomb convey its lessons to us with so much truth and 
dignity as in that empty broom-pod. Those who are learned in old historic lore tell 
us that from very early times the Broom was a favourite emblem in France. In the 
year 1234, St. Louis, as he is called, celebrated the coronation of his queen by 
establishing a new order of knighthood—the Soldiers of the Broom—AMilites genestelle, 
the collar of which was composed of broom-flowers interwoven with the white lily, signi- 
fying humility and purity, and bearing a golden cross with the motto “Haaltat humiles.” 
In 1368 we read of Charles V. of France bestowing the insignia of the “ Broom-pod” 
on his favourite chamberlain. In 1389, Charles VI. gave the same decoration to his 
kinsmen, creating them knights of “the Star of the Broom-pods.” The Highland 
clan Forbes are true Plantagenets so far as their device goes, for the Broom is still their 
distinctive badge. 
The Broom is known to be a very exhaustive crop to the land, so that a hedge 
of it will impoverish the ground for some distance on each side of it. It is said that 
sheep which eat the pods become subject to a sort of intoxication, and yet it is 
supposed by farmers to be beneficial to them in some conditions, and the intoxicating 
‘effects soon pass off. The inebriating properties of these pods do not act only on 
the brute creation. Allan Ramsay, when speaking of the ale brewed by a certain 
landlady, says :— 
“ Some say it was with pith (pips ?) of broom, 
Which she stowed in her masking loom, 
Which in our heads raised sic a soom.” 
Before the introduction of hops, broom-tops were often used to communicate a 
bitter flavour to beer. The young flower-buds are occasionally pickled and used as a 
substitute for capers. The stems yield an excellent fibre, which was formerly woven 
into cloth in this country, and is now used for this purpose in the south of France, 
while the refuse supplies the manufacture with firing. Paper is also made from this 
fibre. As an article of domestic cleanliness, the Broom may have originally obtained 
its common name. 
“The vagrant artist oft at eve reclines, 
And Broom’s green shoots in besoms neat combines.” 
Dr. Prior tells us that the name “comes from Brom or Brame, a word of the same 
origin as bramble, but at present applied exclusively to a shrub of which besoms are 
made, and called from it brooms.” The branches have been used for tanning leather, 
