By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 109 



the Second, was in the practice of wearing a sprig of Planta Genista 

 in his cap, or as an old writer quaintly expresses it, " he wore 

 commonly a broom stalk in his bonnet," and from this circumstance 

 he has acquired the name of Plantagenet, which he transmitted to 

 his princely descendants who all bore it from Henry, who has been 

 called the first royal sprig of Genista, down to Eichard the Third 

 the last degenerate scion of the plant of Anjou." The Broom is 

 now the badge of the Highland clan Forbes. 



The Irish Broom of our gardens is the S. patens from Portugal, 

 not a native of Ireland. The Spanish Broom belongs to the genus 

 Spartium. Other shrubs called Brooms in our gardens are species 

 of Cytisus. 



Ononis, (Linn.) Best-harrow or Cammock. 

 Linn. CI. xvii. Ord. iii. 

 Name. From onos (Gr.) an Ass, because only asses would feed 

 upon so prickly a plant. Rest-harrow is a corruption of arrest, 

 that is stop, harrow; from the long and deeply seated roots, opposing 

 a serious impediment to the plough or harrow. 



1. C. arvensis (Linn.) Common Rest-harrow. Engl Bot. Suppl. 

 t. 2659. C. repens (Koch). . 



Locality. Borders of fields, waysides, and barren pastures. P. 

 Fl. June, September. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 



In all the Districts, usually without spines, and less frequent in 

 Wilts than the next species. 



2. C. campestris (Koch) Thorny Rest-harrow. Engl. Bot. t. 682. 

 Baxter Brit. Flor. Pi. vol. iv. t. 289. C. antiquorum, Bentham (not 

 Linnaeus). C. spinosa (Koch). 



Locality. Barren places, roadsides, pastures on a sandy or marly 

 soil. P. Fl. June, September. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Common 

 throughout the county. 



Both the above plants are very variable in their general aspect, 

 but I here follow the "Manual of British Botany" and the accurate 

 Koch in keeping them distinct. The C. antiquorum of Linnaeus 

 according to Grenier, is distinguished from C. campestris (Koch) 

 by more slender and flexuous stems, which have not the hairy 



