BROOM. 109 
BROOM. 
HUMILITY. 
In the year 1234, St. Louis of France, after the 
coronation of his queen, chose the flower of this 
plant as the insignia of a new order of knighthood. 
The members of this order wore a chain composed 
of flowers of the Broom entwined with white 
enamelled lilies, from which was suspended a gold 
cross with the inscription : Ex alt at hiimiles — 
" He exalteth the humble." With this order he 
associated a body-guard consisting of one hundred 
nobles, on the back and front of whose coat was 
likewise embroidered a Broom flower, over which a 
hand issuing from the clouds held a crown, with 
the inscription : Dens exaltat Juimiles — " God 
exalleth the humble." 
This plant, called in Latin Genista, and in 
French Genet, gave the name of Plantagenct to 
the sovereigns of England for several centuries. 
Lemon, in his " English Etymology," bays : "Four- 
