Broom. 
(HUMILI T Y . ) 
“ The memorial flower of a princely race.” 
HE Broom is a very ornamental shrub, with few leaves, 
but an abundance of brilliant and elegant flowers. 
There are three species with white and one with violet-coloured 
bloom, all the others having yellow blossoms. 
Our common broom surpasses most of the foreign kinds in 
beauty; indeed, few shrubs are more magnificent than this 
evergreen, with its profusion of bright golden blossoms, me¬ 
lodious with the murmuring of innumerable bees. Few can 
gaze unmoved upon its splendid wreaths of glittering bloom, 
‘Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloy’d.” 
It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that our poets have 
clustered round it almost as thickly and as lovingly as the 
bees, or, its beauty being known, that they should have de¬ 
rived as abundant a supply of sweets from its sweetness as 
their little musical competitors, who “hunt for the golden dew.” 
Many a plaintive tale is associated with the broom ; many 
a lament has been sung of the sad thoughts engendered by 
lingering, loving memories of “ the bonny broom,” by wan¬ 
derers far off from their native land. 
The Scotch, ever wakeful to the beauties of their native 
home, have long recognized the poetry of this picturesque 
plant, and in their songs and ballads often chant its praise : 
“ O, the broom, the bonny, bonny broom, 
The broom of the Cowden Knows ; 
For sure so soft, so sweet a bloom 
Elsewhere there never grows.” 
Burns lauds it, and well he might, for doubtless he had 
