190 THE GORSE CROP. 



amount of valuable fuel for the purposes of the house, 

 which in such districts is generally a scarce and costly 

 material. At the present time we find gorse under regular 

 cultivation in several parts of the country as a forage crop, 

 the produce being given either to milking cows, for which 

 it is highly thought of, or to sheep or working horses. 

 In other parts, it is cultivated for the purposes of afford- 

 ing shelter or cover for game; here it is also regularly 

 cut, and the produce sold for fuel purposes, for which 

 there is generally a ready sale. Again, there are large 

 areas covered by gorse of indigenous growth, left entirely 

 in an uncultivated condition, affording a scanty herbage 

 to straying cattle, and shelter to a few rabbits. These 

 generally are sedulously preserved in their wild state, 

 the plants renewing themselves from seed as the old ones 

 die off from age or injuries, to which in such places they 

 are always liable. 



Botanically speaking, the gorse belongs to the order 

 LEGUMINOS.E, of which it forms a distinct genus ULEX 

 three species of which are known to us as being met with 

 in cultivation, or at all events as being capable of furnish- 

 ing food for stock. These may readily be recognized by 

 the following characters: 



Ulex europceus Common Gorse, Furze, or Whin is 

 usually seen as a branched and bushy green shrub, in 

 which the leaves and young shoots are converted into 

 short, thick, spreading, and very intricate spines or 

 prickles. The flowers are yellow, and characterized by 

 the yellowish calyx, nearly as long as the petals, and 

 divided to the base into two broad, concave, nearly equal 

 leaflets, and by the ten stamens all united above the 

 middle into a sheath round the pistil. The pod is oblong- 

 flattened, not much longer than the calyx, hairy outside, 

 and contains usually three or four seeds. This is the 

 Spring -flowering species, commonly cultivated in this 



