BROOM. 
101 
BROOM. 
HUMILITY. 
In the year 1234, St. Louis of France, after 
the coronation of his queen, chose the flower of 
this plant as the insignia of a new order of 
knighthood. The members of this order wore 
a chain composed of flowers of the Broom en¬ 
twined with white enamelled lilies, from which 
was suspended a gold cross,with the inscription: 
Exaltat humiles —“ He exalteth the humble.” 
With this order he associated a body-guard, 
consisting of one hundred nobles, on the hack 
and front of whose coat was likewise embroi¬ 
dered a Broom flower, over which a hand issuing 
from the clouds held a crown, with the inscrip¬ 
tion : Deus exaltat humiles —“ God exalteth the 
humble.” 
This plant, called in Latin Genista, and in 
French Genet, gave the name of Plantagenet to 
the sovereigns of England for several centuries. 
Lemon, in his “ English Etymology,” says: 
