AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 
VIII. 
Tue Lecuminos&, already alluded to, now 
demand more detailed notice, as several species 
are in bloom. 
First and earliest is the Furze or Gorse, 
Ulex Europeus, whose glorious blooms, when 
first beheld in profusion by the great Linnzus, 
caused him to fall on his knees in rapture, and 
praise the Creator for the beautiful sight; the 
later autumn-flowering plant on heaths is U. 
nanus. 
On our moist peaty commons is the Needle 
Whin, Genzsta anglica, which looks like a 
smaller kind of Furze, but is of the genus of 
which the use of one species as an ornament 
gave name to the Royal House of Plantagenet, 
—Planta genista. G. Anglica has spines on 
its stem; but its flowering branches are 
glabrous and without thorns. 
71 
