BROOM-flower gives the denomination to an order of knights instituted by St. Louis of France on occasion of his marriage. The motto was Exaltat humiles, and the collar of the order was made up of broom flowers and husks, enamelled and intermixed with fleurs de lis of gold, set in open lozenges, enamelled white, chained together; and at it hung a cross florence of gold. This answers to what the French called Ordre de la Géneste, from the name of a species of broom so called, different from the common broom, as being lower, the stalk smaller, and leaf narrow: the flower is yellow, and bears a long husk. Some also speak
of another order of the Géneste or Broom established by Bro. Charles Martel, or rather Charles VI.