AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 21 



PLATE 9. 



"Am I not 

 In truth a favoured flower 1 

 On me such bounty Summer showers, 

 That I am covered o'er with flowers ; 

 And when the frost is in the sky, 

 My branches are so fresh and gay. 

 That you might look on me and say, — 

 ' This plant can never die.' " — Wordsworth. 



The Broom ( Sarothamnus Scoparius), the subject of the present plate, is one of our 

 characteristic heath plants, being commonly met with on dry, hilly wastes throughout England 

 and Ireland, and in many localities in Scotland. Like the Yurz&f Ulex Europceus), its companion, 

 its large and brilliant blossoms render it a very conspicuous plant. Its generic name is derived 

 from two Greek words signifying shrub, and to sweep ; having a meaning equivalent to that con- 

 veyed in its familiar English name, an allusion to its domestic use in former times by careful 

 housewives. In the early part of the summer the plant, some four or five feet high, presents a 

 profusion of blossom, so that at a little distance the whole shrub tells only on the eye as a mass of 

 golden yellow. As the blossoms die away they are succeeded by the black pods : these, as they 

 ripen, burst open, as shown in our plate, fig. 96. The flower-stems are very long, of a bright green 

 colour, and very angular in form : fig. 100, a cross section, indicates this latter characteristic very 

 clearly. The pods are very flat, hairy along the edges, and contain numerous seeds. It is at all 

 times a striking plant — whether seen during its summer time of flowering, when covered in the 

 autumn with its dark pods, or verdant during the winter's gloom. It is the badge of the Scottish 

 clan Forbes. 



The Broom, like the Rose of England or the Scottish Thistle, is one of our historic plants, 

 having, under its mediaeval name of Planta genista, given a name to the Plantagenet line of 

 monarchs. It was, from a very remote period, the badge of Bretagne. It was assumed as a 

 personal device by Fulke of Anjou, and afterwards adopted by his grandson, Henry II. of 

 England, on account of his claim to that province : it was subsequently borne by the remaining 

 Plantagenet kings. It first appears heraldically on the great seal of Richard I. Amongst the 

 various devices on the glass quarries in the Chapel of the Tudor king, Henry VII., at West- 

 minster, is a good one, based on the Broom plant. We have endeavoured, in our own designs 

 (figs. 98, loi), to embody something of the nature of the plant — the first one being adapted to a 

 running pattern, and based on the profusion of yellow blossom that we have seen is so characteristic 

 of the Broom ; while the second is a diaper, giving both the flowers and pods : an artistic license 

 that is quite permissible. 



The various forms assumed by fruits are not without interest to the designer. We, there- 

 fore, propose to briefly enumerate the more striking modifications that possess any ornamental 

 value, as, though not so largely employed as foliate or floral forms, they are, nevertheless, 

 frequently used. In Egyptian art, for instance, we see a great use made of the Lotus fruit ; while 

 the Vine, with its clusters of grapes, has in all ages been a favourite plant, partly, doubtless, from 

 its symbolic meaning, but frequently also from its beauty, without afterthought or a consideration 

 of any religious bearing. The Gothic carvers delighted in the Oak, with its accompanying 

 acorns ; the Hop, the Maple, or the Hazel, with their various characteristic fruit forms ; while in 

 the various styles of the Renaissance the introduction of fruit was a very conspicuous feature in 

 the ornamentation. A familiar illustration of this is seen in the border running round the cele- 

 brated Ghiberti gates at Florence, wherein clusters of grapes, pears, beans, wheat, pomegranates, 

 the fruit of the ^gg plant, and many others, are introduced. 



In speaking of the fruit we apply the term ornamentally, and in its widest sense, to that 

 form which succeeds the flowers, whatever its fashion, and regardless of any strict botanical 

 limitation. Fruits are either dehiscent (Lat. dehisco, I split asunder) or indehiscent. The fruit of 

 the Broom is dehiscent, that is to say, splits open on ripening, : a natural arrangement to aid the 

 dispersion of the seeds. The seeds of indehiscent fruit cannot perform their functions until the 

 ripened fruit has fallen from the plant to the ground, and its exterior parts become decomposed. 

 The dehiscence of fruits into regular parts is an ornamental feature of considerable value, as our 

 readers will not fail to remark, should they submit our observations to the test of experience, and 

 observe the natural forms for themselves. In the Broom it is effected by two valves; in the 

 Meadow Saffron (Colchicum autumnale) there are three equal divisions ; in the Thorn-apple 

 (Datura stramonium), four ; in Rhododendrons, five. 



A fruit is termed follicular when it is made up, as in the Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris, 

 fig. 301), of a series of little husk-like parts (Lat. folliculus, a little bag). A fruit is leguminous 



