THIS quaint little shrub, though seldom planted 

 Butcher's nowadays, when we have such a bewildering 

 Broom variety of foreign evergreens to choose from, 

 must have been a favourite with our forebears, foras- 

 much as there are few old pleasure-grounds that do 

 not contain darksome clumps thereof. Unluckily, it 

 does not seem to have been generally known that, 

 whereas butcher's broom is nearly always unisexual, 

 that is, bearing male and female flowers on separate 

 plants, it requires the presence of a male plant among 

 females to ensure the production of the bright scarlet 

 fruit, which is as big as a cranberry. These brighten 

 up the field hedges in the south of England, where the 

 plant is indigenous, and constitute for most people the 

 only attraction of the species; but for botanists the 

 butcher's broom possesses several points of interest. 

 Anything less suggestive of a lily it would be difficult 

 to conceive, yet it belongs to the Lily order, being the 

 only monocotyledonous shrub native to these islands. 

 Its nearest affinity is with asparagus, and the succulent 

 young shoots which it sends up in spring among the 

 hard, dingy verdure on the old wood, are eaten, it is 

 said, by the peasantry in some parts of Europe. I have 



