(ordre de la genista), an order instituted by St Louis, king of France, to show the esteem which he had for the queen his wife, he himself receiving this order the evening before his queen's coronation.

Broom-Gall, in natural history; a name given by authors to a remarkable species of galls found on the genista vulgaris, or common broom. This is occasioned, like all other galls, by the puncture and eating of an insect: and, when opened, is found to contain a small oblong worm of a red colour, but whose size requires the use of a glass to see it distinctly. This gall is of a very singular kind: it is round and prickly; the stalk of the broom always grows directly through it, as if thrust through its middle; and, when nicely examined, the the whole gall appears to be formed of a congeries of leaves much larger than those of the broom naturally are, and twisted into a sort of horns or cornets, ending in a point: these leaves are all hollowed in the middle; and are so thick set and nicely fixed to one another, that they make up the substance of the gall, which is nevertheless a considerably hard one, and their points make the appearance of spines or prickles on the outside. Sometimes there is a sort of fleshy or pulpy substance within it, which supports the leaves; and the worms are sometimes found in this, sometimes in the hollows of the leaves, and sometimes between them: they are so numerous, that there are often some hundreds of them in one gall. The origin of this gall is not from the eggs of the parent animal lodged in the tree; but they are deposited on the surface of the branches, and the young worms, while very small, almost as soon as hatched from them, go in company to some bud on the side of the branch: they get into the folds of this bud, and wounding it in several parts, cause a wrong derivation of the juices into it; the consequence of which is, that instead of forming a branch shooting out from the other, it only yields a congeries of leaves which everywhere surround it. These galls are of various sizes, the largest seldom exceeding that of a nut; and there are often three or four of them seen on one branch, placed at an inch, or a little more, distance from one another.

Broom-Rape, in botany. See Orobanche.