FURZE 245 



in use among the doctors, decoctum scoparii being mentioned 

 approvingly in a manual of Materia Medica in our pos- 

 session, dated 1853. These tops have a bitter and nauseous 

 taste ; but even if many medicines have a nauseous taste, it 

 does not necessarily follow that things of repulsive flavour 

 are therefore medicines. This we admit is a truism, but it 

 needs setting forth all the same. One finds, for instance, 

 people constantly assuming that, since quinine is a tonic, 

 other bitter things are tonics no less, a point that by no 

 means follows. Our forefathers, before the general intro- 

 duction of the hop in brewing, availed themselves of the 

 bitterness of the broom-tops as a flavouring to their home- 

 brewed beer, while the seeds were sometimes roasted as a 

 substitute for coffee. 



FURZE (Ulex Europceus) 



Furze, gorse, and whin are three names for the same 

 thing, though we often find that this fact is not realised. 

 We saw recently some bye-laws issued by a corporation, 

 in which any damage to the "gorse, furze," and other 

 plants in their park, was forbidden. We ventured to 

 remonstrate, and were rebuked for " splitting straws," and 

 so the notice stands. In Holland's translation of Plutarch 

 we find another illustration of this repetition : " We must 

 not alwaies choose that which is easie to be had and 

 willing to be gotten, for we put by gorse and furzen 

 bushes, we tread underfoot briers, though they catch hold 



us. 



The prickly nature of the furze is the point that the 

 poets, like the rest of us, dwell on. Browne, in 'Britannia s 



