134 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



being abraded. Many of the purposes for which it 

 was once used are now supplied by lignum vitae, 

 which is a harder wood, and still more unctuous; 

 but lignumvitse 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 Dunkeld and Blair. 



Nearly allied to the laburnum, though not of the 

 same family, or growing to the same dimensions, is 

 Broom, 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 extirpated 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- 

 greens, and the laburnum 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 deteriorated. The flowers of the ' Dyer's 

 broom' ( Genista tinctoria] afford a bright colouring 



