264 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



No. 2 shows us this second stage in the young 

 shrub's development. At first sight you would 

 hardly suppose it was a gorse at all ; you might 

 take it for the young of some such allied species 

 as a broom or a genista. You will observe that 

 at this point in its history the young gorse has 

 trefoil leaves, not very unlike those of some kinds 

 of clover. Why is this ? Well, we have many 

 good reasons for supposing that the ancestors of 

 gorse were originally soft-leaved and unarmed 

 shrubs, like the ornamental genistas which we 

 grow in pots for drawing-room decoration ; but 

 as they were much exposed on open moors and 

 commons, where they were liable to be grazed 

 down and browsed upon by rabbits, sheep, and 

 other herbivorous animals, the tenderer and more 

 luscious among them stood little chance of sur- 

 viving. Indeed, so hard is it for plants to grow 

 in such situations, that one not uncommonly 

 finds tiny trees of Scotch fir, close cropped to 

 the ground, yet with many years' growth exhi- 

 bited by the annual rings of wood in their 

 underground root-stock. These poor persistent 

 little trees have been nibbled down, year after 

 year, as soon as they appeared, by rabbits or 

 donkeys ; yet year after year they have gone on 

 sprouting afresh, as well as they could, and laying 

 by an annual ring of woody tissue in buried 

 root-stock. 



To some such attacks the ancestral gorses must 

 always have been exposed on the open moors 

 and hillsides of primitive Europe, at first, no 



