herbage, which, in the winter and spring months, is of great importance to the young cattle browsing on the pastures." Cattle will not eat the plant itself, except when pressed by hunger.

2. G. pilósa (Hairy Green-weed).-Stems procumbent and thornless; leaves narrow, obtuse, the lower ones often inversely heart-shaped; flowers axillary, on short stalks; legumes downy. Plant perennial. This species, which is rare, is found on dry, sandy, and gravelly heaths. It grows about Bury, in Suffolk; near Malvern, in Worcestershire; near the Lizard, Cornwall; and in some other places, producing its small, bright, yellow flowers in May, and again in September. Its low prostrate stems are much gnarled and branched, and its leaves are densely clothed on their under surfaces with silky hairs.

3. G. Anglica (Needle Green-weed, or Petty Whin). -Stems thorny, and leafless below; leaves narrow, smooth; legumes smooth, inflated. Plant perennial. This is not an uncommon plant on most heaths and moors. Its flowers, which expand in May and June, are bright yellow, and grow in leafy clusters on the upper branches of the shrub. Its stem is about a foot high, very tough, and bearing at intervals groups of thorns.

3. SAROTHAMNUS (Broom).

S. Scopárius (Common Broom). -Branches angular, slender, and erect; leaves of 3 leaflets, stalked, upper ones simple; leaflets oblong; flowers shortly stalked.

Plant perennial. A beautiful shrub is our Common Broom, with its thousands of golden flowers, gleaming like so many butterflies with expanded wings on the summer boughs, and wafting a delicious odour. The "bonnie broom" has won the praise of many a poet, and gladdened many a heart full of a poetry which it knew not how to express. Mary Howitt apostro

The usual height of the Broom is from three to six feet, but on some spots it grows much higher, and its stem becomes of considerable thickness. Mr. Johnston, in writing to his friend John Ray, describes one of these plants in his day. "Near Kendal," he says, 'I saw to my great wonder a broom-tree, if I may so call it, adorned with very fine flowers, and its stem thicker than

my leg; a very fair spectacle!" The plant grows well on dry hilly plains, and it is largely planted about Ghent, in order to improve the dry sandy soils, and hold them well together by its roots. Several of the species are serviceable in this respect, and the One-seeded Broom, (Genista monosperma,) is very valuable on the shores of Barbary, Egypt, Portugal, Spain, and some other countries, where it converts the barren soils into fragrant and beautiful spots like gardens. It spreads over most extensive districts, and is called by the Spaniards by its old Arabic name, Rætum. Professor Burnett remarks, "Several other Genista are sand-fixing plants, and hence, perhaps, the final cause of their little importance to man, directly as food or medicine, may be perceived; as they thus escape his aggressions, and are allowed uninterruptedly to pursue their constant labours as Nature's pioneers, to the best advantage."

Bees are very fond of the broom flowers, and the Heath land is an excellent neighbourhood for those who keep these insects. The young flower-buds of the plant, gathered just as they are becoming yellow, and pickled, make a good substitute for capers. The young shoots have from time immemorial been used by country people as a cure for dropsy, and Dr. Cullen highly recommends this decoction. Every part of the plant, seeds, leaves, flowers, root, had, according to the old herbalists, some peculiar virtues, and were praised in their quaint statements for "helping pains," "altering fits of the ague," and curing gout, and many an other ill; while an oil procured from the green stalks, when heated by the fire, was pronounced an infallible cure for the

tooth-ache, the malady which, according to Shakespere, not even the philosopher could endure patiently. The plant yields, when burnt, a good alkaline salt, and its name indicates one of its uses for domestic purposes. One of the old writers on plants says, "To spend time in writing a description of the plant is altogether needless, it being so generally used by all good housewives, almost throughout the land to sweep their houses with, and therefore very well known to all sorts of people." The French also term it Genét à balai. The wood, when old, furnishes to the cabinet-maker an excellent material for veneering, and the young boughs may be used in tanning leather. The branches have when bruised a disagreeable odour, which, Mr. Curtis remarks, is the cause probably why they are rejected by cattle. They have also an unpleasant and bitter flavour, but the goats browze freely upon the young shoots. This plant is believed to be the Cytisus of Virgil.

Willsford in his " Nature's Secrets" says, "The Broom having plenty of blossoms, or the Walnut-tree, is a signe of a fruitfull yeare of corne;" and he adds that great store of nuts and almonds, especially filberts, afford a like assurance.

The Broom, formerly called Planta genista, was the Gen of the Celts, and the Genét of the French. It was the badge of a long race of British kings, the Plantagenets. Geoffry earl of Anjou, the father of Henry II., and the husband of Matilda, empress of Germany, was in the habit of wearing a branch of this in his cap, or as an old historian says, "He commonly wore a broom in his bonnet." Some early and interesting association

with the flower, doubtless, led to its place as a plume to the cap of this earl, and old legends tell that he first put it there on the day of battle, plucking the golden branch on his way when passing on to the scene of contest. His son Henry has been called the Royal Sprig of Genista, and the Broom was worn by all his descendants, down to the last of the Plantagenets, Richard III.

4. ONÓNIS (Rest-Harrow).

1. 0.arvensis (Common Rest-harrow).-Stem shrubby, branches hairy, often spinous; lower leaves ternate, leaflets oblong, flowers axillary; calyx much shorter than the corolla. Plant perennial. The Rest-harrow bears, throughout the summer, a number of rose-coloured flowers, much resembling the sweet pea of the garden, though considerably smaller. The leaves of the plant are sometimes slightly notched, and somewhat viscid, and the flowers vary from a red or deep rose colour, to a paler hue, and in some instances to white. This plant which grows on field borders, where the soil is sandy, or on rocky dry places, is especially luxuriant near the sea. On the cliffs of Dover its pretty flowers are most abundant from the end of May until September, and having there the full benefit of shelter from north winds, and receiving all the sunshine of a southern aspect, the plant may sometimes be found in blossom even at Christmas. It is so variable that some writers consider that several forms included in one general name, should be regarded as so many distinct species. Professor