572 ARBORETUM AND FHUTICETUM. PART 111. 



land, where it was introduced, but is now naturalised, it scarcely attains 

 330 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, Brunswickc, and 

 Poland," where the plants were " most curiously kept in their fairest gardens." 

 {Herbal, p. 1320.) Linnaeus lamented that he could hardly jjrescrve 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 5c6rpius of Theophras- 

 tus and the f-^lex of Pliny. By modern botanists, before the days of Lin- 

 naeus, it was considered as a species of broom ; and L'Obel and other 

 writers, accordingly, style it (rcnista spinosa. Linnaeus restored to it the 

 name of t/'lex, 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 Ccnfsta s|)in6sa vulgaris. Hanbury 

 enumerates no fewer than G varieties of it, differing in the length of the spines; 

 and one having white flowers, and anotiier 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 Britan)', 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 a green 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 pur[)oses. 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 "i years, or thrice 

 in 6 years, and afterwards breaking up the ground for corn. The shoots are 

 bruised by j)assing them between two fluted rollers, or grinding them in a bark 

 or cider mill. (See Enci/c. 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 slenderncss of the shoots, and the erect, compact, or fastigiate 



