Broom. 
r 3 8 
returned to his castle. Not only did the duke adopt his 
country’s most beauteous wild flower as a cognizance, but he 
also took the name of Plantagenet, or planta genista , and 
transmitted the same to his princely descendants, who each 
bore it from the time of Henry II.—called by historians the 
first royal sprig of genista, till the third Richard, last scion of 
the plant of Anjou. 
This version of the story how the emblem of humility be¬ 
came the crest of a sovereign house, is corroborated by Lemon, 
in his “ English Etymology.” He thus recapitulates the tale : 
“ Geoffry, Count of Anjou, acquired the surname of Planta¬ 
genet from the incident of his wearing a sprig of broom on a 
day of battle. This Geoffry was second husband to Matild, 
or Maud, Empress of Germany and daughter of Henry I. of 
England ; and from this Plantagenet family were descended 
all our Edwards and Henries.” 
It could not be expected that so romantic a story would 
escape the poets, and accordingly we find it embalmed in the 
following flowing verse : 
‘‘Time was when thy golden chain of flowers 
Was linked, 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 in his crest, 
And bequeathed to his race thy simple name. 
Long ages past has sunk to his rest, 
And only survives in the rolls of fame. 
“Though a feeble thing that Nature forms, 
A frail and perishing flower art thou ; 
Yet thy race has survived a thousand storms, 
That have made the monarch and warrior bow. 
“ 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.” 
In 1234, when the brave Marguerite, the Queen of Louis IX. 
of France was crowned, that King, surnamed “ the Saint,” 
selected the broom as the badge to be worn by the members 
of a new order of knighthood which he created on that festive 
occasion. The knights of this order wore a chain composed 
of the blossoms of the gendt entwined with white fleurs-de-lis , 
