828 DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. Genista 
GENIS'TA. # ( Filaments upwards in two sets: Stigma ter¬ 
minal, somewhat capitate : Legume turgid : Pistil de¬ 
pressing the keel: Standard reflexed. Sm. E.) 
reported a method of procuring flax from Broom. The process is detailed in Month. Mag. 
rol. 2S, p. 616. This discovery may prove important to the paper manufacturers. This 
kind of flax has also been bleached and spun with good success. The peasantry, where 
neither flax nor hemp can be obtained, use no other for making cloth. The remaining 
twigs are well calculated for carpet brooms. In North Britain cottages and ricks are 
thatched with it; and in certain districts where fuel is scarce, it has been encouraged for 
that purpose. Who can gaze without delight upon the splendid wreaths of blossom, 
“ Yellow and bright as bullion unalloy’d ? ” 
More especially if the spectator be acquainted with the Scottish pastorals, ever true to 
nature, and replete with allusions to “ the bonnie, bonnie Indeed the pathetic 
incidents associated with our oft despised plant, and described with such exquisite naivete , 
prove that these northern Paphian bowers possess an equally magic influence with the 
famed myrtle groves of more genial climes, and amply attest the ubiquity of all potent love. 
If the veracity of these tender tales be not impeachable, neither the “ Puing of the 
bracken,” nor even “ Ower the muir among the hether,” ever proved more productive of 
perilous adventure than the spot, where 
“ Down among the Broom the Broom, 
Down among the Broom, my dearie. 
The lassie lost her silken snood. 
That gard her greet till she was wearie.” 
And what can be more touching than the lament while absent from all such rural joys, 
“ More pleasing far are Cowden knows, 
My peaceful happy home, 
Where I was wont to milk my ewes 
At ev’n among the Broom.” 
In a burst of genuine patriotism, yet not forgetting the ruling passion, Burns happily 
celebrates these favourite haunts of love and poesy. 
“ Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon, 
Where bright-beaming summers exalt the perfume; 
Far dearer to me yon lone glen of green breckan, 
Wi’ the burn stealing under the lang yellow Broom ; 
Far dearer to me are yon humble Broom bowers. 
Where the blue-bell and gowan lurk lowly unseen; 
For there lightly tripping amang the wild flowers, 
A-listening the linnet, oft wanders my Jean.” 
Nor was our humble shrub much less distinguished even by royalty, mid the (t uncivill 
civill warres ” of the fourteenth century, than the antagonist Rose herself; for a sprig of 
this Planta Genista was the adopted badge of Getroi, Duke of Anjou, father of our Henry 
the Second ; and from this cognizance he acquired the name of Plantagenet, by him 
transmitted to his princely descendants, who all bore it from Henry, who has been called 
the first royal sprig of Genista, down to the tyrant Richard, the last degenerate scion of the 
plaut of Anjou. The historical fact is thus commemorated in an interesting little work 
entitled the “Wild Garland.” 
“ Time was, when thy golden chain of flowers 
Was link’d, the warrior’s brow to bind ; 
When rear’d in the shelter of royal bowers. 
Thy wreath with a kingly coronal twined. 
The chieftain who bore thee high on his crest, 
And bequeath’d to his race thy simple name, 
Long ages past has sunk to his rest. 
And only lives in the voice of fame. 
* (Supposed from genuim Jlexitate , but its applicability is not very apparent, E.) 
