_Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 4 (56).

The Broom was one of the most popular plants of the Middle Ages. Its
modern Latin name is _Cytisus scoparius_, but under its then Latin name
of _Planta genista_ it gave its name to the Plantagenet family, either
in the time of Henry II., as generally reported, or probably still
earlier. As the favourite badge of the family it appears on their
monuments and portraits, and was embroidered on their clothes and
imitated in their jewels. Nor was it only in England that the plant was
held in such high favour; it was the special flower of the Scotch, and
it was highly esteemed in many countries on the Continent, especially in
Brittany. Yet, in spite of all this, there are only these three notices
of the plant in Shakespeare, and of those three, two (2 and 3) refer to
its uses when dead; and the third (1), though it speaks of it as living,
yet has nothing to say of the remarkable beauties of this favourite
British flower. Yet it has great beauties which cannot easily be
overlooked. Its large, yellow flowers, its graceful habit of growth, and
its fragrance--

"Sweet is the Broome-flowre, but yet sowre enough"--

SPENSER, _Sonnet_ xxvi.

at once arrest the attention of the most careless observer of Nature. We
are almost driven to the conclusion that Shakespeare could not have had
much real acquaintance with the Broom, or he would not have sent his
"dismissed bachelor" to "Broom-groves."[42:1] I should very much doubt
that the Broom could ever attain to the dimensions of a grove, though
Steevens has a note on the passage that "near Gamlingay, in
Cambridgeshire, it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as
they pass through it; and in places where it is cultivated still
higher." Chaucer speaks of the Broom, but does not make it so much of a
tree--

"Amid the Broom he basked in the sun."

And other poets have spoken of the Broom in the same way--thus Collins--

"When Dan Sol to slope his wheels began
Amid the Broom he basked him on the ground."

_Castle of Indolence_, canto i.

And a Russian poet speaks of the Broom as a tree--

"See there upon the Broom tree's bough
The young grey eagle flapping now."

_Flora Domestica_, p. 68.

As a garden plant it is perhaps seen to best advantage when mixed with
other shrubs, as when grown qu