THE BROOM. 7 



Wilson, again, dwells on "the fragrance of the yellow 

 broom." 



The vigour of its growth on the open moorland, or amidst 

 the rocks of the bleak mountain-side, is often referred to. 

 It is " the thick entangled broom " of Thomson ; and we 

 find it again in the graphic descriptions of Scott 

 " And now to issue from the glen 



No pathway meets the wanderer's ken, 



Unless he climb, with footing nice, 



A far projecting precipice. 



The broom's tough roots his ladder made, 



The hazel saplings lent their aid ; 



And thus an airy point he won, 



Where, gleaming with the setting sun, 



One burnished sheet of living gold, 



Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled." 



The broom is invariably found on dry situations, such as 

 railway-embankments, high-lying moorland, or hilly and 

 mountainous slopes. Its fondness for high land is noticed 



by Wordsworth, in the lines 



" The broom 



Full-flowered, and visible on every steep, 

 Along the copses runs in veins of gold." 



And Mary Howitt associates the " yellow broom blowing " 

 with " the mountain-side wilds." The image used by 

 Wordsworth, " veins of gold/' recalls the lines of Cowper, 



where he speaks of 



" The broom, 

 Yellow and bright as bullion unalloyed." 



This richness of colour and the large size of the 

 blossom make it a very conspicuous feature in the wild 

 moorland landscape. It flowers early in the year ; Wharton 

 gives its flowering as one of the indications of opening 

 summer 



' ' O'er the field of waving broom 

 Slowly shoots the golden bloom." 



