36 The Broom. 



twigs ; others to Gem, to produce, because it grows wild in 

 abundance. It is characterized by a two-lipped calyx, five- 

 toothed, the two upper teeth very short ; banner oblong, rellexed 

 back from the pistil and stamens. It is the emblem of Humility, 

 from its growing in sandy soils where nothing else will llourish. 

 When the husbandman intends reducing such wastes to culti- 

 vation, he first sows this kind of seed, which springs up in bushes, 

 confining the soil, and giving it sufficient stability to enable him 

 to sow others. Blake remarks, that in Belgium and Holland the 

 Broom is succeeded0*y the Acacia; the branching roots of 

 which, stretching out in various directions, sustain the soil, as it 

 were, in osier baskets ; and finally they succeed in making the 

 desert bloom with the Rose. Blake also tells us, that the sand- 

 hills formed in the vicinity of Bordeaux, formerly threatened the 

 destruction of the entire villages adjacent, of which it was calcu- 

 lated that no less than seventeen would be overwhelmed in the 

 course of a century ; when M. Bremontier was so fortunate as 

 to discover a means of averting the danger. Observing the sand 

 thus thrown up was not devoid of mixture, he scattered over it 

 the seeds of Broom and Maritime Pine, and in order to prevent 

 their being swept away by the wind, he covered them with 

 brambles and branches of underwood. The seed sprouted ; the 

 Broom first rose above the ground, and some time after the young 

 pines appeared ; the latter, however, made but little progress, 

 seeming to be choked by the rapid growth of the Broom ; yet in 

 the course of a few years the pines gained the ascendency, and 

 drove their antagonists from the field, or rather, like the canni- 

 bals, after destroying their enemy, fed upon their remains. .We 

 need hardly observe that the inventor gained his object, and se- 

 cured himself a blessed memory. 



The Genista Tinctoria, or Dyer's Broom, has some medi- 

 cinal reputation, derived probably from confounding it with the 

 Sparbium Scopparium ; its common use is to dye a yellow 

 color, whence it derives its name. The Russian peasants use 

 it in a form of decoction, both externally and internally, as a 

 remedy for hydrophobia ; many trials have been made with it to 

 test its virtue in that respect, but they have all resulted in proving 

 it worthless. 



