DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. Spartium. 827 
S. scopa'rium. Leaves ternate or solitary : branches without prickles, 
angular. 
Curt .—( E. Bot. 1339. E.)— Kniph. 3 — Riv. Tetr. 63. 1, Genista .— Woodv. 
89 — FI. Dan. 313 — Blackw. 244 — Sheldr. 7 — Dod. 761. 1 — Lob. Obs. 531. 
1, and lc. ii. 89. 1— Ger. Em. 1311. 1— Bark. 229. 1— Ger. 1130. 1— 
Fuchs. 219— J. B. i. b. 388. 3 — Trag. 961 — Lonic. i. 39. 2. 
Leaves and leaf-stalks slightly hairy. Calyx the upper segment with two 
teeth larger than those of the lower. Blossom standard nearly circular, 
slightly notched at the end. Keel, the petals rather hooked, united at 
the lower edge by an intertexture of very fine, soft, woolly hairs. Sta¬ 
mens, four long and six short. Style bowed almost into a circle, and 
after flowering into a spiral; the extremity, which one should be inclined 
to regard as the summit, not hairy. Blossom golden yellow, large and 
showy. ( Branches numerous, straight, angular, evergreen. Plant three 
to six feet high or more. Leaves small, smooth, deciduous. E.) 
Common Broom. (Irish: Gileagh. Welsh: Banadlen. Gaelic: Beal - 
aidh. Genista of older authors. Genista scoparia. Hook. Grev. E.) 
Dry fields and thickets. S. May—June.* 
* The buds are sometimes preserved as pickles, (and eaten in the manner of capers. 
The plant, when burnt, affords a tolerably pure alkaline salt. Dr. Mead relates the case of 
a dropsical patient who was cured by taking half a pint of a decoction of green Broom 
tops, with a spoonful of whole mustard seed, every morning and evening. The patient 
bad been tapped three times, and tried the usual remedies before. Mon.Med. 138. An 
infusion of the seeds drank freely has been known to produce similar happy effects. I 
knew 1 them succeed in one case that was truly deplorable; but out of a great number, 
in which the medicine had a fair trial, this proved a single instance. A strong 
lixivium of the ashes was used successfully in the Swedish army in 1759, to cure dropsies 
consequent to a catarrhal epidemic fever. Med. Com. i. 373. Some use the seeds 
roasted, so as to make a kind of coffee, (and the tender tops as a substitute for hops. The 
wood produced by large old plants is ornamental for veneering. The fibres may be 
obtained by steeping the Broom in water; of these Pliny says the Asiatics made the most 
enduring fishing nets ; though it seems probable the historian might intend Junceum , 
more prevalent in those countries, and to this day appropriated to various economical 
purposes, for which our northern species answers only in a secondary degree. E.) The 
plant merits a place among our flowering shrubs, on account of the profusion of its 
golden blossoms. (Cows, horses, and sheep refuse it. Linn. Notwithstanding the 
assertion of Linnaeus that sheep do not eat Broom, it is customary in some parts of Britain 
to pasture the flocks where it abounds in blossom, and thus, in the opinion of many 
intelligent farmers, is the disease called the Rot prevented. The same practice is very 
generally followed in the South of Europe, especially for winter food : though to prevent 
the stimulating effects of the plant, a good supply of water should always be accessible. 
Does not the benefit rather arise from the dry and hilly ground on which Broom is usually 
found ? In dropsy to which sheep also are liable, doubtless the plant itself proves salutary, 
as farmers well know : though Clorin, in the Faithful Shepherdess, sympathizes with 
- 4< The lazy clowns 
That feed their heifers on the budded Brooms.'’ 
Orobancke is found attached chiefly to leguminous plants, especially to this (and the 
following), whence called Broom- rape—the latter part of the compound, from the turnip¬ 
shaped bulb at the base of its stem. E.) Phaictnci Pisi, (Chrysomela Lilura, Lamprias 
chlorocephala, Apion mclanopum , Cassida ntarcida, Haltica orbiculata, Laria fascelina, 
Geomelra rnfata, feed upon it; also, more rarely, Apion Sport it. The blossoms yield an 
abundant supply of honey for bees. E.) When the seeds are fully ripe and the legumen be¬ 
comes black, it has the power of discharging its contents to a considerable distance (by an 
expansive vis elastica, usually excited by the solar heat. E.) The Rev. James Hall has 
