292 APPENDIX BY THE 



flowers, covering broad tracts of untilled land, produce a 

 brilliant and striking effect when in bloom. It is said 

 that Linnaeus, when he first saw them, fell on his knees 

 with expressions of delight at their beauty, lamenting 

 that the plant should be wanting .in Sweden. It is occa- 

 sionally cultivated in poor soils for fodder, as horses are 

 fond of it, and the cattle are also fed with it in some 

 parts of England, after it has been bruised in a sort of 

 mill. In tracts of country where wood is scarce, it is fre- 

 quently used by the cottagers for fuel. The pods of the 

 Whin, or Furze, when ripe burst open with a loud crack- 

 ling sound, which is described as pleasing, of a warm sum- 

 mer's day. We Americans have no other acquaintance 

 with the Furze than what is derived from books and prints. 



NOTE O. 

 THE MAPLE, (Acer campestre,Yp. 79. 



The common English Maple, Acer campestre, is wholly 

 different from our own various species. It is a tree found 

 throughout the greater part of Europe south of Scotland 

 and Sweden, and is observed as fat 1 east as the Caucasus. 

 In England, however, it is little more than a bush, or small 

 tree of no great beauty, and whose wood is chiefly used 

 for turning cups and bowls, such as hermits used in days~ 

 " when ballads were written about them. Its leaves are 

 heart-shaped, with either two or five segments which are 

 not serrated ; its flowers are erect, in branching corymbs. 



In .the southern Caucasus this maple is said to become 

 a fine tree, the wood being in request for its hardness ; 

 and it is used for purposes less peaceful than the hermits 

 bowl, being worked up into gun-stocks. 



The Sycamore-maple, Acer pseudo-plat nus, is a very 

 different tree, of noble growth, indigenous to southern 



