"Sweet is the Broome-flower!" exclaims Spenser. The broom is the _Planta genesta_, from which the Plantagenets took their name. The flower, having become heraldic during that dynasty, was embroidered on the clothes of the Plantagenet family and imitated in their jewels. When they died it was carved on their monuments. The story goes that Geoffrey, Earl of Anjou, father of Henry II of England, once on his way to a field of battle, had to climb a rocky path, and he noticed as he went along the bushes of yellow broom clinging to the rocks. Breaking off a branch he, placed it in his helmet with the words: "This golden plant shall be my emblem henceforth. Rooted firmly among rocks and upholding that which is ready to fall." His son, Henry, was called "the royal sprig of Genesta." The golden plume of broom-flowers was worn by the Plantagenets until the last one of the line, Richard III, lost the Crown of England to Henry VII, the first of the Tudors. In 1264 the _Planta genesta_ was honored by St. Louis, who instituted the Order of Genest on his marriage with Marguerite. The Knights of the Genest wore chains made of the broom-flower alternating with the fleur-de-lis. Shakespeare speaks of a "broom-staff" and sends _Puck_ with broom before To sweep the dust behind the door. Whether _Puck's_ broom was made from the _Genesta_ or not we do not know; but we do know that the broom, in common with other briars, was used to make besoms for sweeping and also for staffs to walk with and to lean upon. [Illustration: ROSE ARBOR, WARLEY, ENGLAND] Summer "SWEET SUMMER BUDS" I "_Morning Roses Newly Washed with Dew_" THE ROSE (_Rosa_). Shakespeare speaks of the rose more frequently than any other flower. Sixty references to the rose are scattered through his works. Sometimes he talks of the rose itself and sometimes he uses the word to make a striking comparison, or analogy. With magical touch he gives us the bold picture of a Red rose on triumphant briar, then he brings before us a delicious whiff of the Perfumèd tincture of the roses, or the luscious fragrance of Morning roses newly washed with dew. With equal delicacy of perception he tells us So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose.[49] Shakespeare's special roses are the Red, the White, the Musk, the Eglantine (sweetbrier), the Provençal, or Provins, the Damask, the Canker, and the Variegated. [49] "Love's Labour's Lost"; Act IV, Scene III. THE RED ROSE (_Rose Anglica rubra_), the English red, is thus described by Parkinson: