572 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART Il. 
land, where it was introduced, but is now naturalised, it scarcely attains 
350 ft. of elevation. Its failure, Watson observes, marks the higher part 
of the upland zone, and gives an accurate indication of the climate. 
(Outlines, §c., p. 124.) It grows on the sea coast, close to the water’s edge, 
flowering abundantly, and apparently uninjured even when washed by the 
spray of the sea. It is not found wild in Asia, Africa, or America; in the 
north of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, or Russia. Gerard tells us that he 
was desired by “ divers earnest letters,” to send seeds of our common furze 
and broom to “ the colder countries of the East, as Dantzicke, Brunswicke, and 
Poland,” where the plants were “ most curiously kept in their fairest gardens.” 
(Herbal, p.1320.) Linnzus lamented that he could hardly preserve it alive 
in a green-house; and Dillenius, when he first visited England, knelt down in 
admiration of the quantities he saw in flower on Hounslow Heath. The 
furze is abundant in the middle and southern districts of Scotland, though 
Dr. Walker doubts its being truly indigenous, from its flowering in the winter ; 
jocularly observing that “no truly Scotch plant would be so rash.” Though 
indigenous in England, it is nevertheless, in extremely severe winters, killed 
down to the ground ; from which, however, it shoots up the following season. 
This happened in the winter of 1819-20, to whole fields of furze in 
Surrey. 
History. The furze is commonly thought to be the Scérpius of Theophras- 
tus and the Ulex of Pliny. By modern botanists, before the days of Lin- 
nzus, it was considered as a species of broom; and L’Obel and other 
writers, accordingly, style it Genista spinosa. Linnzus restored to it the 
name of Ulex, which it has since retained throughout the botanical world. 
The earliest notices which we have of the plant are in Turner, who calls it 
Genista; and in Gerard, who calls it Genista spinosa vulgaris. Hanbury 
enumerates no fewer than 6 varieties of it, differing in the length of the spines ; 
and one having white flowers, and another a dwarf habit : but there are none in 
cultivation at present, worthy of being kept distinct, except the upright and 
double-flowered varieties. In France, in the province of Britany, and in Nor- 
mandy, the furze bush has been used as fodder for cattle from time immemo- 
rial: it is bruised in a cider mill, and given to them in agreen state. Evelyn 
informs us that it was cultivated for this purpose in Herefordshire; and that, 
in Devonshire, the seeds were sown in the worst land, the tops given to horses, 
and the branches used for fuel, burning lime, and other purposes. Du Hamel 
says that, about Poitiers, in Britany, the furze is sown and treated in exactly 
the same manner as saintfoin. In Britain, the furze is cultivated in various 
places, for hedges, fodder for cattle, protection for game, and under- 
wood. Captain Cook mentions that, when he touched at St. Helena, he 
found the inhabitants had planted a great quantity of furze there, to be used 
as fodder, and also as shelter to the pasturage, by excluding heat and 
evaporation. About 1825, or earlier, the double-flowered variety was found 
wild in Devonshire; and that has since been propagated, and very exten- 
sively cultivated in gardens, as an ornamental evergreen flowering shrub. 
Properties and Uses. As fodder, the young branches, bruised, and given to 
cattle and horses, in a green state, are found highly nutritive; and not to 
affect the taste either of the milk or butter of cows. In some parts of the 
country, furze bushes, in a wild state, are cropped for this purpose; and in 
others the clippings of furze hedges are taken; but, where the practice of 
feeding with furze is to be carried on as part of a regular system of farm 
management, the most efficient mode is, to cultivate the plants in a regular 
rotation with corn and other crops, mowing them twice in 4 years, or thrice 
in 6 years, and afterwards breaking up the ground for corn. The shoots are 
bruised by passing them between two fluted rollers, or grinding them in a bark 
or cider mill. (See Encyc. of Agr., 2d edit., § 2553.) In Wales, an upright- 
growing variety (to be hereafter noticed as a botanical species) has lately 
been chiefly cultivated for fodder, on account of the comparative absence of 
prickles, the slenderness of the shoots, and the erect, compact, or fastigiate 
