and saw-dust boiled in lye will change the hair to an auburn colour."

When it was the fashion to clip and cut trees into the shapes of beasts, birds, &c. the Box was considered as second only to the yew for that purpose; for which, Pliny says that nothing is better adapted. Martial notices this quality in speaking of Bassus's garden :

"otiosis ordinata myrtetis,
Viduaque platano tonsilique buxeto."
"There likewise mote be seen on every side
The yew obedient to the planter's will,
And shapely box, of all their branching pride
Ungently shorne, and with preposterous skill,
To various beasts, and birds of sundry quill
Transform'd, and human shapes of monstrous size;

"Also other wonders of the sportive shears
Fair Nature mis-adorning, there were found
Globes, spiral columns, pyramids and piers

With sprouting urns, and budding statues crown'd ;
And horizontal dials on the ground

In living box by cunning artists traced;

And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound,

But by their roots there ever anchor'd fast,

All were their bellying sails outspread to every blast.”

G. WEST.

This preposterous taste in gardening was at last reformed by the pure and classical taste of Bacon; who, though no enemy to sculpture, did not approve of this absurd species of it: at once disfiguring art and nature.

"In several parts of the north of England, when a funeral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of Box-wood is placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is taken up; and each person who attends the funeral ordinarily takes a sprig of this Box-wood, and throws it into the grave of the deceased."-(See Note in WORDSWORTH'S POEMS, 8vo. vol. i. p. 163.)

"The basin of box-wood, just six months before,
Had stood on the table at Timothy's door;
A coffin through Timothy's threshold had pass'd,
One child did it bear, and that child was his last."
WORDSWORTH.

Gerarde informs us, that turners and cutlers call Boxwood dudgeon, because they make dudgeon-hafted knives of it. The box-tree is a native of most parts of Europe, from Britain southwards: it also abounds in many parts of Asia and America. In England it was formerly much more common than at present.

"These trees," says Evelyn, "grow naturally at Boxley in Kent, and at Box-hill in Surrey: giving name to them. He that in winter should behold some of our highest hills in Surrey, clad with whole woods of them, for divers miles in circuit, as in those delicious groves of them belonging to the late Sir Adam Brown of Beckworth Castle, might easily fancy himself transported into some new or enchanted country."

But this enchantment has been long since dissolved. Mr. Millar, in 1759, lamented the great havoc made among the trees on Box-hill, though there then remained several of considerable magnitude; but since that time the destruction has been yet greater. Not only this hill in Surrey, and Boxley in Kent, but Boxwell in Coteswold, Gloucestershire, is said to be named from the Box tree. It has been made a serious and heavy complaint against Box, that it emits an exceedingly unpleasant odour, of which the poets speak as a thing notorious: yet it is only when fresh cut that the scent is unpleasant, and a little water poured over it immediately removes this objection.

According to Herrick it was the custom with our forefathers, on Candlemas day, to replace the Christmas evergreens with sprigs of Box:

"Down with the rosemary and bays,

Down with the misseltoe;
Instead of holly, now upraise
The greener box for show.

The holly hitherto did sway;

Let box now domineer,

Until the dancing Easter-day,

Or Easter's eve appear:

Then youthful box, which now hath grace
Your houses to renew,

Grown old, surrender must his place

Unto the crisped yew.

When yew is out, then birch comes in,

And many flowers beside,

Both of a fresh and fragrant kin

To honour Whitsuntide:

Green rushes then, and sweetest bents,

With cooler oaken boughs,

Come in for comely ornaments

To readorn the house."

BROOM.

SPARTIUM.

LEGUMINOSE.

DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA.

French, le genêt*; le genêt a balais.-Italian, sparzio; scopa; ginestra; scornabecco: all referring to its use as besoms.

THE Brooms are very ornamental shrubs, with few leaves, but an abundance of brilliant and elegant flowers: they strike a deep root, but are too handsome to be rejected where

* The family of Plantagenet took their name from this shrub, which they wore as their device. It has been said that Fulk, the first Earl of Anjou of that name, being stung with remorse for some wicked action, went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as a work of atonement; where, being soundly scourged with broom-twigs, which grew plentifully on the spot, he ever after took the surname of Plantagenet, or Broom-plant, which was retained by his noble posterity.

room can be afforded for them. They must be planted in a pot or tub of considerable depth. There are three species with white, and one with violet-coloured flowers: the others have all yellow blossoms.

The violet-coloured has no leaves, and is usually called the Leafless Broom: it was found by Pallas in the Wolga Desert. The Spanish Broom has yellow-the Portugal, white blossoms. The white-flowered, one-seeded kind, is a native both of Spain and Portugal. "It converts the most barren spot into a fine odoriferous garden," says Mr. Martyn, speaking of this species.

:

All the species here named will endure the cold without shelter they do not like much wet. Our common Broom surpasses many of the foreign kinds in beauty indeed, few shrubs are more magnificent than this evergreen, with its profusion of bright golden blossoms.

"On me such beauty summer pours
That I am covered o'er with flowers;

And when the frost is in the sky,
My branches are so fresh and gay
That you might look at me, and say,
This plant can never die.

The butterfly, all green and gold,

To me hath often flown,

Here in my blossoms to behold

Wings lovely as his own."

WORDSWORTH, vol. i. p. 259.

They are the delight of the bees: and the young buds, while yet green, are pickled like capers. It is said that the branches are of service in tanning leather, and that a kind of coarse cloth is manufactured from them. The young

shoots are mixed with hops in brewing; and the old wood is valuable to the cabinet-maker. Brooms are made from this shrub; and, from their name, it is supposed to have furnished the first that were made.

"Where yon brown hazels pendent catkins bear,
And prickly furze unfolds its blossoms fair;
The vagrant artist oft at eve reclines,

And broom's green shoots in besoms neat combines."

SCOTT of Amwell.

In the north of Great Britain it is used for thatching cottages, corn, and hay-ricks, and making fences. In some parts of Scotland, where coals and wood are scarce, whole fields are sown with it for fuel.

But the Scotch have long been aware of the poetry as well as the utility of this beautiful shrub. The burden of one of their most popular songs is well known:

"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, too, in one of his songs, written to an Irish air, which was a great favourite with him, called the Humours of Glen:

"Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon,

Where bright beaming summers exalt the perfume;
Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' 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 sweet flowers,
A listening the linnet, oft wanders my Jean."

""Twas that delightful season, when the broom
Full-flowered, and visible on every steep,
Along the copses runs in veins of gold."

WORDSWORTH'S POEMS, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 265.

Thomson speaks of it as a favourite food of kine. It

flowers in May and June.

"Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed,

Her blossoms."

COWFER'S TASK.