GENISTA. SPARTIUM. 51 



126. Genista tinctoria. Rare. B, Birgham miiir : near 

 Whiterigg in Eccles : near Coldstream. — D. Longridge and Ilaiden 

 deans. July. 



127. G.ANGLicA. ^oov^'mi)m: f^catljcr^WIjin : fiflogsf-'OTIjin. 

 — Common throughout the Lammermuirs ; and on all the heaths in 

 N. Durham. June- July. 



128. Spartium scoparium = Sarothamnus scoparius. Cijf 

 ^room. May-June. — There are several places in Berwickshire the 

 names of which indicate the former prevalence of this heautiful shrub 

 in their localities ; e. y. Broomhouses, Broomilaw, Broomhill, Broom- 

 dykes, and Broomknowes ; — but its habitat of greatest celebrity is 

 Cowdenknowes, an uudulatory rising ground of great beauty in the 

 west of the county * : 



" More pleasant far to me the Broom 

 So fair on Cowdenknowes, 

 For sure so sweet, so soft a bloom, 

 Elsewhere there never grows." 



The progress of agriculture has greatly thinned and depauperated 

 our broomie shaws, but still the "lang yellow broom" is plentiful 

 enough in many of our deans, and on many a steep brae, in upland 

 districts especially. It is, says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, " a curious 

 fact in regard to the history of the plant, that it grows to perfection 

 in a very few years, some seven or eight, we believe, and then dies 

 entirely away, and then some years must generally elapse before the 

 seed, with which the ground must have necessarily been filled, will 

 vegetate ; of this we have ourselves had large experience." Tait's 

 Magazine, Oct. 1847, p. 657. — Sheep are very fond of the Broom, 

 and they may be pastured upon it and Whins, in favourable situations, 

 during winter, as an intelligent farmer, on the border of the Lammer- 

 muirs, informed me, he had often done with profit and advantage. 

 The sheep invariably first pick off, and greedily devour, the pods, 

 which produce a sort of intoxication, but this effect is transient, and 

 leaves no inconvenience behind. " Spartium scoparium si ovis in- 

 gurgitet, statim temulenta evadit, decumbit, et pro tempore ambulare 

 nequit. Haec aflfectio autem usui continuo plantse cedit." Rev. Dr. 

 Walker. — It exerts a like intoxicating influence on man ; and hence 

 Allan Ramsay, in his address to a landlady who was famous for brew- 

 ing a heady ale, tells us — 



" Some said it \A'as the pith of 33rOOm 

 That she stow'd in her masking-loom. 

 Which ill our heads rais'd sic a soom ; 



Or suuic wild seed, 

 ''bich ul't tiie cuaping stoup did toom. 



But fill'd our head."— Poems, i. p. 219. 



An infusion or decoction of the young shoots is a popular, and not 



* Cowdenknowes — viz. the yellow knolls, for Cowden appears to be a 

 corruption of Gowden or golden. In the olden time the name was spelt 



E 2 



