12 ENGLISH BOTANC. 



uDknown to the ancients, and is mentioned by Pliny, though it is probable that they 

 were best acquainted with the Spanish broom, Si)artium junceum. Our English poets 

 have delighted to sing of the golden blossoms and bright green branchlets of this 

 beautiful plant. Chaucer says : — 



" Amid the Broom he basked him in the sun." 



Cowper tells us of 



"The Broom, 

 Yellow and bright as bullion unalloyed." 



Wordsworth says : — 



" The Broom, 

 Full-flowered, and visible on every steep. 

 Along the copses runs in veins ot gold." 



While the northern ballad, so characteristic of the strong love of " Home, be it ever so 

 homely," of the Scotch declares, 



" More pleasant far to me the Broom 

 That blows sae fair on Cowden Knowes, 

 For sure so sweet, so soft a bloom, 

 Elsewhere there never grows." 



Its almost perennial blossom is well described by a Welsh poet :— 



" Its branches are arrayed in gold, 

 Its boughs the sight in winter greet. 

 With hues as bright, with leaves as green. 

 As summer scatters o'er the scene." 



But we might go on adding to the list of poets who have loved to describe the 

 beauties of this iavourite shrub. The Scotch claim the Broom, and delight to tell of 

 the favoured spot 



" Down among the Broom, the Broom, 

 Down among the Broom, my dearie, 

 The lassie lost her silken snood. 

 That gaed her greet till she was wearie." 



And Burns, in a burst of patriotism, celebrates his native haunts of love and poesy. 



" Their groves of sweet mjrrtle let foreign lands reckon. 

 Where bright beamiog summers exalt the perfume j 

 Far dearer to me yon lone glen of green breckan, 

 Wi' the bui-n stealing under the lang yellow Broom. 

 Far dearer to me are yon humble Broom bowers. 

 Where the bluebell and gowan lurk lowly unseen ; 

 For there lightly tripping amang the wild flowers, 

 A-listeniag the linnet oft wanders my Jean." 



Nor is the " bonnie broom " less conspicuous in the annals of heraldry than in 

 song. Ordinary school history tells us that King Henry II. of England, wearing the 

 Broom, Planta genista, in his cap, assumed and transmitted the royal surname of 

 Plantagenet j but there is strong evidence to prove that Fulke, Earl of Anjou, the 

 grandfather ot Henry, assumed the Planta genista as an emblem of humility on leaving 



