MEDITATIONS ON A BROOMSTICK. 
175 
to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by way of 
penance. He went, habited in lowly attire, with a sprig 
of broom in his hat to denote his humility. The expia¬ 
tion finished, he adopted the name of Plantagenet, from 
Planta and Genista ,* the old name of the broom, and 
transmitted this to his princely descendants.f As an 
emblem of humility, too, it was worn by St. Louis, in 
1284, on the occasion of his marriage with Margaret, 
eldest daughter of Raymond Berengarius, Count of Pro¬ 
vence, and a new order of knights was instituted t5 
commemorate the event. The motto of the order was 
“ Exaltat humiles,” and the collar of the order was made 
up of the flowers and seed-pods of the common broom, 
enamelled and intermixed with fleur-de-lys of gold. This 
Ordre de la Geneste, or Order of the Broom, continued 
till the death of Charles the Fifth. 
u Though the feeblest thing that nature forms, 
A frail and perishing flower art thou; 
Yet thy race has survived a thousand storms 
That have laid the monarch and warrior low. 
The storied urn may be crumbled to dust, 
And Time may the marble bust deface; 
But thou wilt be faithful and firm to thy trust,— 
The memorial-flower of a princely race. 
Then hail to thee, fair Broomstick! herald of a 
thousand years, memorial of human trials, triumphs, 
and sufferings. Abide with us, oh ! tough and well-tried 
* Genista.— -The Celt implies small bush ; or from genu, a knee, 
from the bending of the twigs; or geno, to produce, on account of 
its abundance. 
t Sandford’s “ Genealogical History,” 
