1122 



It exerts a like intoxicating influence on man, and hence Allan Ram- 

 sey, in his address to a landlady who was famous for brewing a heady 

 ale, tells us — 



■'> 



' Some said it was the pith of broom 

 That she stow'd in her masking loom, 

 Which in our heads rais'd sic a soom ; 



Or some wild seed, 

 Which aft the chaping stoup did loom, 

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



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

 inefficient remedy in many dropsical cases. Besoms are called in 

 the North, brooms, having, until of late years, been commonly made 

 of the twigs of this shrub. In 1554, before the Bailiff's court, a jury 

 of twelve men found ' that the yonge brome of this towne (Berwick) 

 ought not to be cut, for it is a coraodyte to this towne.' " — P. 51. 



The observations which follow, respecting Pyrola minor, are singu- 

 larly corroborated by some of our own on the appearance and 

 disappearance of this species under the shade of fir-trees in woods 

 in Herefordshire. The firs are always artificially introduced ; 

 and it is not until these have arrived at mature age, towering above 

 the surrounding forestry, and have destroyed the undergrowth of 

 dwarf herbs, that the Pyrola makes its appearance. It will then sud- 

 denly cover a patch of many square yards, only, however, to disap- 

 pear in the course of a few years, and display its peculiar leaves in a 

 similar, but distant locality. 



" Pyrola minor. Woods, B. In a wood at Orange Lane, and in 

 a plantation to the north of Loch Lithtillum, Dr. R. D. Thomson. 

 Blackadder plantations ; plantations at Greenburn ; in woods at Man- 

 derston House. Banks of the Dye above Longformacus. In a wood 

 between the farms of Simprin and Swinton Hill ; and in a wood on 

 the farm of Milne-Gi-aden, J. Hardy. In almost every fir plantation 

 in the west of Berwickshire, and in Roxburghshire, Dr. F. Douglas. 

 — Mr. Hardy remarks that P. media flowers in greatest beauty when 

 under long heather ; and I have observed of P. minor, that, when 

 grown in a pot, the leaf-stalks twist and contort themselves so as to 

 reverse the natural position of the leaf, and make the upper surface 

 look to the ground, in a manner which appears to me remarkable. 



" The circumstances that determine the appearance of this plant in 

 our fir plantations are not well ascertained. It springs up in green 

 patches after the baneful shade of the trees has extirpated the abori- 

 ginal possessors of the soil, such as the heaths and smaller Carices. 



