1882.] RAMBLES BY THE RIBBLE. 123 



quire it ; but the above will be sufficient to give an idea of the 

 luxuriant vegetation of the scene. Before I conclude this branch 

 of the subject, however, I should mention that the Dyer's Green- 

 weed [Genista tinctoria), a plant not commonly met with in the 

 neighljourhood of Preston, though frequent in many places, grows 

 plentifully in the fields between the new reservoir and the delf. It 

 is a member of that family which furnished a badge and a name 

 to the renowned race of Plantagenet : 



" Memorial flower of a princely race." 



The readers of the ' Chronicle ' Avill remember the story how 

 Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, father of Henry the Second, King of 

 England, wore a sprig of Broom in his hat by way of a badge, 

 and from it obtained the name of Plantagenet (the Latin name of 

 the plant being Planta genista, the French Plante genet), a name 

 which several generations of his descendants bore, A recent 

 work of great authority (the ' Encycloppedia Britannica') has 

 given another version of the story. It says : " Fulk, the first Earl 

 of Anjou, stung with remorse for some wicked action, went, as 

 a work of atonement, in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where, being 

 soundly scourged with Broom twigs, which grew plentifully on 

 the spot, he afterwards took the surname of Plantagenet, which 

 was retained by his posterit3^" I am not disposed to accept the 

 latter version ; I adhere to the old story as told in the History of 

 England, which I read in my schoolboy days; and I find the 

 author of Tom Ingoldsby's Legends adopts the same version 

 when he starts his story of the Brothers of Birchington with the 

 lines — 



" You are all aware that 



On our throne there once sat 



A very great king, who'd an Angevin hat, 



With a great sprig of Broom, wliich he wore as a badge in it, 



Named from this cii-cumstance Henry Plantagenet." 



I must not, however, dwell so long over a bit of Broom, or I 

 shall be like my botanical friend, whom sometimes I compare 

 with the hero of another legend of Ingoldsby's — 



" Sir Thomas the Good, 

 Who, be it weU understood, 

 Was a man of very contemplative mood, — 

 He would pore hy the hour 

 O'er a weed or a flower. 

 Or the slugs that come crawluig out after a shower ; 



