596 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETLM. PART III. 



When the broom is found in abundance in a wild state, it varies consider- 

 ably in the colour of the flowers, and in the smoothness or hairiness of 

 the pods. Sometimes, also, the calyx takes a purple tinge. None of these 

 varieties, however, are in cultivation, except the first, which, indeed, is of 

 little value. 



Geography, History, fyc. The broom is found in a wild state in most parts 

 of Europe, from Norway and Sweden to the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 It is also found in the Mediterranean islands, in Greece, Turkey, but not, as 

 it would appear, in Russia. At great elevations, it is a shrub not exceeding 

 1 ft. in height ; but in the woods of Galicia it attains a timber-like size, 

 growing to the height of 20 ft. or 30 ft. or upwards. In Britain, it is found 

 to the height of 1800ft. or 1900ft., on the Grampian Mountains, and as 

 far north as Sutherlandshire. 



Properties and Uses. The whole plant is exceedingly tough, and bitter to 

 the taste, and has a strong disagreeable smell. Though it is at present com- 

 paratively neglected, yet in former times it was one of very great importance 

 in rural and domestic economy. The branches are eaten by sheep and cattle, 

 and, on poor gravelly soils, formed, before the general improvement of gra^s 

 lands which has taken place within the last century, the principal herbage. 

 In the mountainous districts of Scotland, and also in France and Spain, it 

 still constitutes, with the heath, the principal winter food for store sheep. 

 In Scotland, during the winter season, when the ground was long covered 

 with snow, the broom was cut, and carried to the farm-yards and sheepfolds 

 as the only provender; and, though it is not readily eaten by horses and cows, 

 yet, at that season, they, as well as the sheep, fed on it. Sheep, at all seasons, 

 eat it greedily. The branches were also used for litter, for thatching ricks 

 and houses, and for making fences or screens, in the same manner as reeds. 



One of the principal modern uses of the broom, both in Britain and on the 

 Continent, is to form brooms, or besoms, for which purpose, as the specific 

 name would imply, it appears to have been used from time immemorial. In 

 the woods of Spain and the south of France, more especially in Galicia, 

 where, in schistose soils, the broom attains a timber-like size, the wood be- 

 comes an object of value. It is much used for veneering, from being finely 

 veined; and many beautiful little articles of turnery are made of it. The most 

 durable of all stakes for supporting vines are made of its branches; and of its 

 twigs ties are made for the vine-dresser, and for a variety of other purposes. 

 The branches were formerly used for tanning leather, and also for dyeing 

 yellow; and, when treated in the same manner as those of Spartiumjunceum 

 (see p. 577.), they afford a fibre which may be spun and woven into a very 

 good coarse cloth. An excellent paper may also be made of this fibre. The 

 branches, and the whole plant, used at one time, in France, to be burned for the 

 sake of the ashes, from which a potass was procured, by lixiviation and ev apor- 

 ation; the coarsest kind of which was sold to the glass-works, and the finer 

 kind to the apothecaries. In Britany there are extensive tracts of very poor 

 sandy and gravelly soil, upon which scarcely any thing grows but the heath 

 and the broom. These are regularly pastured by immense flocks of sheep ; 

 and the tufts of broom, which here and there grow up and form bushes, are 

 periodically cut down ; and, after being burned on the spot, their ashes are 

 spread over the surface of the ground as manure. 



In domestic economy, the young shoots were formerly used as a substitute- 

 for hops in brewing beer; and the flower buds, just before they become 

 yellow, are pickled in the manner of capers. 



In medicine, the tops and leaves of broom are purgative and diuretic ; and 

 dropsical patients have been cured by taking half a pint of the decoction of 

 green broom tops, with a spoonful of white mustard seed, every morning and 

 evening. Dr. Cullen gave two table-spoonfuls of the decoction every hour, 

 and cured several dropsies with it. The efficacy of the broom in dropsies is 

 said by Sydenham, Monro, and others, to depend upon the alkali contained 

 in the plant. 



