26 WILD FLOWEES. 



might, perhaps, be followed with great advantage 

 on some of our coasts ; the more so, as the whole 

 tribe of leguminous plants appear to be very ser- 

 viceable in resisting, by the matting of their roots, 

 the encroachments of tide and wind on a sandy 

 shore. In the Eastern desert of Egypt the broom 

 (Spartium monospermum, the Ruttum of the 

 Arabs), grows and flourishes : occurring in great 

 abundance between the Nile and the Isthmus of 

 Suez, a little to the N. of latitude 30. The broom 

 forms an excellent pasture, for sheep, and is valuable 

 on account of its being green " the winter through/' 

 The naturalist of Berwick-upon-Tweed was informed 

 by an intelligent farmer, that the sheep invariably 

 devour the pods first, which produce a kind of in- 

 toxication, the symptoms of which are, happily, of 

 but short duration, and do not appear to injure the 

 health of the animals. Men also are similarly af- 

 fected by them, so that, as he remarks, the circum- 

 stance explains the, apparently mysterious, lines of 

 Allan Ramsey, which speak of the ale brewed by a 

 certain landlady : 



" Some say it was with pith (pips ?) of broom 

 Which she stowed in her masking-loom, 

 Which in our heads raised sic a soom." 



Broom-twigs however are, or were, not unfre- 

 quently used, in equal proportions with hops, for the 

 purpose of imparting a bitter to beer; whether 

 with the same effect I know not. Every part of 

 the plant is exceedingly bitter ; and every part, like 

 many another bitter thing, is exceedingly useful. 



