134 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



being abraded. Many of the purposes for which it 

 was once used are now suppHed by Hgnumvita?, 

 which is a harder wood, and still more unctuous ; 

 but lignum vitae is more splintery. For tables la- 

 burnum wood is not so well adapted, being seldom 

 of sufficient breadth for a fold, and not standing well 

 when glued ; but for pillars, bed-posts, feet of tables, 

 and all similar uses, it is excellent. 



The seeds of laburnum have very powerful medi- 

 cinal effects upon the human system, and a garland 

 of the flowers, if worn for some time, is said to 

 occasion head-ache. Some of the largest trees that 

 we remember to have seen are in Athol, by the way- 

 side between Dimkeld and Blair. 



Nearly allied to the laburnum, though not of the 

 same familv, or ffrowiuff to the same dimensions, is 

 Broovi, — the wood of the Common Broom (^Spartium 

 scoparium) very much resembling that of laburnum 

 in everything but colour. The wood, when of suf- 

 ficient size, is applicable to the same purposes as 

 laburnum. For one purpose — pins for pulleys, 

 it is superior to any other wood. Common broom 

 is so hardy that, instead of requiring any care 

 in cultivation, it is extirjiated as a weed. In 

 some places, however, it is sown close, and after 

 two or three years, cut for thatching barns and cot- 

 tages. Though the brooms be in general ever- 

 gTeens, and the labm-num deciduous, yet some of the 

 brooms are called, indiscriminately. Genista and 

 Cytisus. When the Scotch snuff-boxes were first 

 made by Mr. Steven, of Laurencekirk, they were 

 formed of the roots of broom, steeped for a long 

 time in water ; but when the demand became great, 

 and other persons engaged in the manufacture, 

 inferior materials were used, and the quality of the 

 boxes was deterioi-ated. The flowers of the ' Dyer's 

 broom' {Genista tinctorid) afford a bright colouring 



