100 OBSERVATIONS ON THE BROOM. 



" 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 bright beaming summers exalt the perfume; 

 Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' green breckan, 

 Wi' the burn stealing under the lang yellow broom. 



" Far dearer to me are yon humble broom bowers, 



Where the blue-bell and gowan lurk lowly unseen ; 

 For there lightly tripping amang the sweet flowers, 

 A listening the linnet, oft wanders my Jean." 



" 'Twas that delightful season, when the broom 



Full-flowered, and visible on every steep, 



Along the copses runs in veins of gold." 



Wordsworth. 



Thomson speaks of it as a favourite food of kine. It flowers in 

 May and June. 



" Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed, 

 Her blossoms." 



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 ; 

 Or, when Dan Sol to slope his wheels began, 

 Amid the broom he basked him on the ground, 

 Where the wild thyme and camomile are found." 



Castle of Indolence. 



Mr. Horace Smith speaks of it as poisonous, yet most of the species 

 are eaten by cattle ; some are particularly recommended as a food 

 for kine. The Base Broom, or 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. 



