Broom (plant)

“ Distribution--New Brunswick, westward to Ontario and Missouri, south to the Gulf states.
Nearly related to the broom-rape is this less attractive pirate, a taller, brownish-purple plant, with a disagreeable odor, whose erect, branching stem without leaves is still furnished with brownish scales, the remains of what were once green leaves in virtuous ancestors, no doubt. But perhaps even these relics of honesty may one day disappear. Nature brands every sinner somehow ”

“ BOX can be grown in almost any soil, but prefers light soil with gravelly subsoil. See page 297.
BROOM-FLOWER (Cytisus scoparius) , a splendid flowering shrub with yellow flowers of handsome color, succeeds in dry, sandy places where most other plants fail. It can, therefore, be planted on rough dry banks. It grows from seed; and this can be sown in any sheltered place out of doors. Cuttings placed in a frame are also easy to strike.
CAMOMILE will grow in any garden soil. It is a creeping plant and grows freely in dense masses. The flowers are white and blossom from June to August. ”

“ When the seed has been shaken from the plant, the tops are brought together, and form those excellent besoms which, throughout southern Europe, supply the place of birch-broom, than which they are more elastic, not so brittle, and much cleaner. ”

“ The wind is an important distributer of seeds.
One of the South Down sheep is trailing behind it a piece of bramble which has caught in its wool; others, which have been grazing on the broken cliff-edge where Agrimony, Forget-me-not, and Burdock are flourishing, are certain to have spiny or sticky fruits entangled in their wool. Animals therefore carry seeds in their wool or fur. If it should happen to be a fine, sunny afternoon, and if there are any plants of Broom near by, it is quite likely that you may, every now 256 and then, hear a faint, sudden crack. ”

“ Securely staking tall-growing plants is necessary if one desires neatness and effectiveness in the garden. We care for a plant twelve months in the year for the benefit we derive from its short season of bloom, and to allow it, then, to be sprawled upon the ground by passing storms seems cruel. Broom handles and ash rods, half an inch in diameter, used by basket makers, may be obtained from dealers in broom material. Bamboo canes are useful, as well as the painted stakes sold by seed houses. The stakes should be forced well down into the soil. ”

“ I have a side-hill ranch on which I would very much like to raise broom corn. The soil produces good grapes, fruit, corn, oats, peas, etc., and I wish to know if there are possibilities of broom-straw.
All the broom-corn which has been successfully produced in California has been produced on moist, riverside land. The plant is a sorghum - consequently subject to frost injury, and can only be grown during the frostless season as Indian corn is. ”

“ This makes it impossible to get the advantage of rainfall on winter upland and necessitates the use of lowlands, which carry moisture enough to secure a free growth of the brush, for poor broom-corn is worthless practically, being too low priced to be profitable for brooms and too fibrous to be of value for feeding purposes. Even in a place where the plant grows well its product is worthless unless properly treated, and that requires full knowledge and a good deal of work. ”

“ Trombelli, who relates this fact, also gives an account of the manufacture of broom-bark in the vicinity of Lucca, where the hills, called Monte Cascia, are covered with this plant [212] . “Formerly,” he [Pg 205] says, “the people derived no other advantage from the shrub than to feed sheep and goats with it, and to heat their stoves and furnaces. But their ingenuity and industry have now made it far more profitable. ”

“ Much more simple means are employed at present, to fix the downs by sowing, for it is mostly considered sufficient to plant branches of broom, furze, or pine in quincunx upon the down to be sown and to scatter various seeds broadcast, and cover them lightly with a rake. ”

“ No broom that nowadays grows on the brae, so yellow as the broom—the golden broom—the broom that seemed still to keep the hills in sunlight long after the sun himself had sunk—the broom in which we first found the lintwhite's nest—and of its petals, more precious than pearls, saw framed a wreath for the dark hair of that dark-eyed girl, an orphan, and melancholy even in her merriment—dark-haired and dark-eyed indeed, but whose forehead, whose bosom, were yet whiter than the driven snow. ”

“ Cotoneaster microphylla.—Quite hardy either as a bush or on a wall.
Cytisus albus.—No garden should be without this beautiful Broom. C. præcox, the Cream Broom, is a dwarfer but no less beautiful variety; it is very pretty grouped with a few plants of C. purpureus, which flowers at the same time. Another fine Broom is the red and yellow variety of the Common Broom (C. scoparius andreanus) . The Brooms will grow anywhere, but prefer an open place in full sun. They [Pg 169] should be cut hard back after flowering, and if the young seed-pods can be picked off so much the better. ”

“ The different species display almost every colour except green, being red or brown or purple or yellow, and one blue. These plants live by attaching themselves to the roots of their host, and drawing in the nourishment they need for their own growth—robbery pure and simple. The seeds of the Broomrapes are very numerous and very light, and of singularly primitive structure. When they develop, they produce, not a young plant with root and stem, but a delicate spiral filament which grows down into the ground. ”

“ All of them attack roots, and most confine their attentions to one particular flowering plant. Their colours are generally very striking and unusual. Our British species are reddish, flesh-coloured, or dirty white, but some of the foreign kinds are blue or violet, yellow, or yellowish to dark brown. Generally the seedling Broomrape worms its way down into the earth till its root-tip touches the root of its special favourite host, then the root of the Broomrape fixes 336 itself for life; its suckers grow into the host and absorb all the food material which it requires. ”

“ Only be sure that more important still than climate are the wind-breaks we can plan, and the shelter we may contrive. Yet when we are in doubt we can always come back with satisfaction to the quick-growing hardiest shrubs and find in them some fit setting for our garden picture. The slender angled branches of green Broom, the rigid spiny Furze, scented Rosemary, or hoary Lavender—all will lend their varied tints and attributes as we need them. ”

“ They go to mass every morning, and make visits of etiquette on Sundays. They take more interest in political than in domestic affairs. Dust and cobwebs are unmistakable signs of indifference. Brooms are rarities; such as exist are besoms [Pg 83] made of split stick. Since our return, we have sent to a Quitonian gentleman, by request, a package of broom-corn seed, which, we trust, will be the forerunner of a harvest of brooms and cleaner floors in the high city. Not only the lords, but also the ladies, are inveterate smokers. ”

“ Broom, the Spanish, or Spartium junceum, L. an exotic shrub, which may be easily cultivated in our climate, by sowing it either in the spring or autumn: but as the plants will not succeed when removed after attaining a large size, they should be transplanted before they are two years old.—The twigs are employed for basket-work, and the flowers afford a plentiful supply of food for bees: hence the culture of this shrub is recommended near bee-hives. ”

“ Little Myron was often impressed with the truth that a single leaf broken from a growing hopvine kills the whole spray. She learned to "pick up her feet," as her father expressed it, and step daintily between the wandering vines, so that no slurring footstep might injure them.
Jed Holder had carried on the broom-making for many years very systematically. Year by year he rented from Sol Disney a bit of the virgin soil of the woodland, and the tall brown tassel of the broom corn overtopped the stamps in the clearing. ”

“ The Broom too, "the bonny, bonny Broom," waves it slender sprays in the soft breeze, and we look from the gay, gold-coloured butterfly-blossoms it bears on the walls, to the small and more delicate white ones of the gardens, and know not which are most beautiful. The Guelder Rose trees look as if overburthened with their globes of silvery flowers; and the aromatic Syringo breathes afar off her delicious perfume, which emulates in sweetness, as her flowers do in beauty, the famed orange blossoms of southern lands. ”

“ Spanish Broome groweth to bee fiue or sixe foote high, with a woody stemme below, couered with a darke gray, or ash-coloured barke, and hauing aboue many pliant, long and slender greene twigs, whereon in the beginning of the yeare are set many small long greene leaues, which fall away quickly, not abiding long on; towards the tops of these branches grow the flowers, fashioned like vnto Broom flowers, but larger, as yellow as they, and smelling very well ”

“ The broom-millet was grown most successfully on the estate. The stalk had been cut up and consigned to the silos by the ton. Thousands of bushels of the seed, much like sorghum, had been deposited in the poultry-farm granary. The broom fibres—oft blessed by all who ever possessed a foul pipe—were now being manufactured by old folk and children into an article superior to any "American broom." The fibre was quickly gathered together by hand, and bound round with fine wire worked by a spindle. ”

“ It was an old-fashioned kitchen garden with flowers in the borders. There were single rose-colored tulips which had been in the garden as long as Miss Betty could remember, and they had been so increased by dividing the clumps that they now stretched in two rich lines of colour down both sides of the long walk. And John Broom saw them.
"Pick the pretty flowers, love," said he, in imitation of Thomasina's patronising tone, and forthwith beginning at the end, he went steadily to the top of the right-hand border, mowing the rose-coloured tulips as he went. ”

“ From the garden a path leads along the ridge to a higher elevation, where the three tall crosses, seen for miles around, spring from a rocky knoll at the rear of a small semicircular opening, enclosed by firs, prettily intermingled with beech and birch. Heath and yellow broom grow from crevices in the rocks, and the wild thyme, crushed by your foot, fills the air with aromatic sweetness, for the spot is left to the nurture of the winds and the rain. ”

“ Upright Brome (Bromus erectus) is a perennial of strong growth, with stout creeping rootstock, sending up smooth and rigid stems 2 or 3 feet in height. The narrow leaves have their edges rolled inwards. The inflorescence is a lax panicle; the spikelets purplish in tint. The two empty glumes are unequal, and contain from five to eight flowering glumes, with awns, and hairy all over. There are seven other British species in the genus. ”

“ In their natural habitat it is almost impossible to find the seeds when once thrown. I, therefore, brought some into the house and placed them on my billiard-table. They were thrown from one end completely over the other, in some cases more than twenty feet.
Some species of vetch, again, and the common broom, throw their seeds, owing to the elasticity of the pods, which, when ripe, open suddenly with a jerk. Each valve of the pod contains a layer of woody cells, which, however, do not pass straight up the pod, but are more or less inclined to its axis (Fig. 9) . ”

“ I feel we should recognize the fact that eradication of brooming disease is impossible; but one should plant, or graft, those varieties known to bear good crops in spite of this trouble. The Thomas and Grundy black walnuts do very well here, as well as the two local nuts mentioned. I do not know of any Persian varieties affected. I do not have any Persian trees with the typical broomy bunch, as is so often seen in the Japanese walnut, and its hybrids. ”

“ The leaves with the longest stems must be used for the legs. If there are more than two long-stemmed leaves, cut off all except those wanted for the legs. Bend the long, stout broom-straws at one end, as in Fig. 161, and push the other end up through the thick part of the stems and into the radish; then with a piece of string or strong blade of grass tie the stems of the leaves to the straws, as shown in Fig. ”

“ When large trees are swarming with the caterpillars, as is the case in many orchards, such trees should be visited every morning, and the larvæ, which are then congregated in masses on the trunks, destroyed, which may be readily done by the vigorous use of a common broom. ”

“ This species forms in the course of its growth two kinds of leaves; the entire leaves of the young plant, which are shaped like those of the common live-forever, and, at a later stage of growth, cleft leaves. The two kinds of leaves are not equally competent to form buds, but the property is a peculiarity of the cleft ones. When we gently draw the hand over a well-grown plant of Bryophyllum, we will find the feathered leaves falling like ripe fruits to the ground, while the entire leaves remain fixed upon the plant and will not be disturbed by any shaking. ”

“ In the Spartium Scoparium, or common broom, I have lately observed a curious circumstance, the males or stamens are in two sets, one set rising a quarter of an inch above the other; the upper set does not arrive at their maturity so soon as the lower, and the stigma, or head of the female, is produced amongst the upper or immature set; but as soon as the pistil grows tall enough to burst open the keel-leaf, or hood of the flower, it bends itself round in an instant, like a French horn, and inserts its head, or stigma, amongst the lower or mature set of males. ”