SEPTEMBER. 413 



hills, a gorgeous aspect is in this month given to the 

 landscape by the flowering of the autumnal Gorse or 

 Furze. The spring Gorse (Ulex Europceus) com- 

 mences flowering even during the chilling blasts of 

 December and January, its golden flowers often glazed 

 with ice, succeeded in declining summer by the Ulex 

 nanus or lesser Gorse, which continues to gild the 

 heaths late into the autumnal floral reign. Thus some 

 kind of Gorse always exhibiting its yellow bloom, has 

 given rise to one of those common proverbs kissing 

 is out of season when Gorse is out of flower that is 

 never! which shows how ready even the uncultivated 

 mind is to take notice of the facts in nature that are 

 open to general observation. Every body sees 

 " The prickly Furze with bloom of brightest gold ; " 

 but every body may not be aware that there are two 

 kinds flowering at different times of the year. Even 

 the autumnal Eurze is botanically divisible into two 

 forms, if not species, both differing in the smaller size 

 of their flowers from TJlex Europceus, as well as in the 

 calycine bracts being very minute, the calyx merely 

 pubescent with distinct teeth, and the wings mani- 

 festly shorter than the keel. In the autumnal gorse, 

 too, the legumes do not ripen till the second year, 

 and then remaining unopened on the plant; while in 

 the spring gorse the legumes burst open in the year 

 of their production, shedding their seeds with a 

 cracking noise in the sun ! 



The autumnal Gorse has two aspects, lately pro- 

 posed as distinct species ; one, Ulex nanus, is of 

 dwarf growth, much less spiny than Europceus, rather 

 elegant, and of a trailing habit, with the wings of the 

 corolla flat, straight, and shorter than the keel. The 



