THE BROOM. 15 



BROOM. 



Ci/tisus vel Genista. 

 (Sarothamnus of "EDINB. CAT." ) 



Welsh, Aurfanadl, Melynog-y-waun. French, Genet. Ger- 

 man, Ginster. Dutch, Brem. Italian, Ginestra. Spanish 

 Jinestra. Portuguese, Giesta. Danish, Genista. 



NATURAL. 



Diadelphia. Leguminosoe. 



Decandria. Papilionacece. 



Genistece. 



Oh, the broom, the yellow broom, 



The ancient poets sung it, 

 And still the poets love to lie 



The summer hours among it. 



NOR is it very wonderful that they should do so ; 

 not alone on account of the golden glories of its 

 radiant bloom, but because it grows in spots which 

 are a very paradise to the poet's heart. Shunning 

 the tranquil meadows and fertile corn-lands of 

 better cared-for tracts, it lives away on the breezy 

 hill-side, where no maledictory glance from the 

 eye of the practical agriculturist turns upon its 

 beauties. And there, with the breezes of heaven 

 blowing all around, it bathes in the flooding sun- 

 light, and opens a very sea of blossoms, whose 

 tints seem to have been won from that light itself. 

 There, too, in its taper branchlets the linnets build, 



