14 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
showing the existence of tannic acid. The seeds, when roasted, form no bad sub- 
stitute for coffee. The wood when it is suffered to attain a sufficient age is much 
prized by cabinet-makers, who employ it in veneering. The twigs are used for 
thatching cottages and ricks, and the whole plant, when burned, yields an ash which 
contains 29 per cent. of carbonate of potash, The salt of broom, or Sal Geniste, was 
formerly used in medicine ; so that we may really say that there is not a portion of this 
plant without its use. 
Medicinally the Broom has long been administered as a diuretic, and we find 
that broom-tops are still retained in the New Pharmacopeeia of the United Kingdom, 
published 1864, They are given as “the tops fresh and dried from indigenous plants.” 
Dodoen recommended a decoction of the tops in dropsy, and for “stoppages of the 
liver.” The powdered seeds have likewise been administered, and sometimes a tinc- 
ture is employed. Dr. Cullen recommended a decoction of the plant very strongly, 
and his testimony is supported by Pereira and others. It is said that Broom acts 
beneficially in dropsy when all other remedies have failed. Dr. Mead mentions a 
case of this kind; and it is recorded that some soldiers of the Swedish army, who 
suffered from dropsy after an epidemic fever in 1759, were cured by taking a lixivium 
of the ashes of the Broom. Gerarde abounds in recommendations of this plant, but 
does not confine its virtues to the only disease for which it is supposed to be effectual, 
but tells us of all sorts of fleshly ills for which it is an effectual cure. He records 
“that the worthy prince of famous memory, Henry VIII., king of England, was 
wont to drinke the distilled water of broom-flowers, against surfets and diseases 
thereof arising.” 
GENUS IV.—ONONIS. Linn. 
Calyx herbaceous, campanulate, 5-cleft, with long narrowly 
triangular teeth. Standard broadly oval, keeled on the back, with 
the lamina spreading; keel produced at the apex into a sharp- 
pointed beak directed towards the standard. Stamens mona- 
delphous, rarely diadelphous. Style very long, geniculate-ascending. 
Stigma terminal, subcapitate. Pod short, inflated, exserted or 
included in the calyx. Seeds few, with the funiculus not dilated 
at the hilum. 
Perennial herbs or undershrubs, often with long woody root- 
stocks, with or without spines. Leaves stalked, pinnately trifoliate, 
or the upper ones unifoliate. Stipules more or less adhering to 
the petioles. Flowers rose-colour, purple, or yellow, axillary and 
terminal, sessile, or more often pedunculate. Peduncles 1- or more- 
flowered. 
The derivation of the name of this genus is from ovog (onos), an ass. One author 
considers that it refers to the hindrance which it gives to these or other animals when 
employed at the plough ; and another writer says that it was given because some of the 
species are-said to be grateful to asses. 
