OR, PLAIN TEACHING. 



265 



extent of common over-grown 

 with furze in flower, he knelt, 

 and thanked God for having 

 permitted him to look upon so 

 beautiful a scene. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of St. Petersburg, furze 

 forms one of the most valuable 

 greenhouse plants. It is used, 



fuel. The tender shoots are 

 mashed, and given as food to 

 horses, and the refuse is mixed, 

 and used as manure. There is 

 still another use of a furze hedg- 

 ing : when full grown, it affords, 

 in rainy weather, a shelter to live 

 stock, which neither thorn nor 

 any other hedge affords ; for there 

 are no droppings from a furze 

 hedge. This is a fact of which 

 any pedestrian may convince 

 himself, if caught in a shower of 

 rain, in the neighbourhood of a 

 furze enclosure. 



672. 



when young, in England as food 

 for cattle, and rabbits are very 

 fond of the young sprouts. It is 

 grown also for fences, upon turf 

 mounds raised for the purpose. 

 These are called " whin hedges ;" 

 they afford capital shelter for 

 game, and in some districts are 

 made useful for the drying of 

 clothes. Furze hedges are very 

 general in Ireland, and are much 

 preferred by the people to any 

 other, and not without reason. 



In parts of the country where a dark green colour ; the leaves 

 turf is scarce, and coal dear, the j are prickly at the points, and 

 furze is a ready and abundant from the middle of the leaves 



12 1 



673. 



The butcher's broom, 18, is a 

 prickly shrub, tough, stiff, and of 



