The Broom. 35 



odoriferous garden. At this season Wordsworth thus de- 

 scribes it — 



On me such beauty summer pours, 

 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 may look at me and say, 



This plant can never die. 

 The butterfly, all green and gold, 



To me hath often flown, 

 Here in my blossoms to behoM 



Wings lovely as his own. 



The Furze and Broom are closely associated, both bearing 

 flowers of the butterfly order, the golden bloom of which so 

 pleased Linnaeus, that he fell on his knees enraptured at the 

 sight, which he beheld for the first time on his visit to England 

 in 1736. He conveyed some of the plants to London, but could 

 never preserve them through the winter. It is in the class Dia- 

 delphia, order Decandria. Darwin 3ays, in allusion to the union 

 of the stamens at the base, and there being but a single pistil : 



Sweet blooms Genista in the myrtle shade, 

 And ten fond brothers woo the haughty maid. 



The generic name is derived from the Greek, rope, because of 

 the use of the slender branches and bark in making cordage. It 

 is characterized by the calyx extending downwards ; keel gene- 

 rally pendant ; filaments adhering to the germ; stigma villose 

 lengthwise on the upper side. The seeds of our species are con- 

 tained in a compressed legume, hairy at the sutures. 



The whole plant has a bitter nauseous taste, and when bruised, 

 a strong peculiar odor. The tops of the branches and seeds 

 are the portions used, from which alcohol and water will extract 

 their active properties. Cullen prescribed this plant as a cathar- 

 tic and diuretic, in the form of decoction, made by boiling half 

 an ounce of the fresh tops in a pint of water down to half a pint; 

 of which he gave a fluid ounce every hour until it operated. 

 This species is the Emblem of Neatness. 



Genista is celebrated for having given name to a long line of 

 English princes, by Geoffry, Earl of Anjou, adopting it from the 

 incident of his wearing a sprig of Broom in his hat on a day of 

 battle. It is very uncertain from whence the name is derived ; 

 some refer it to Genu, a knee, in allusion to the bending of the 



