THE yOUNG NATURALIST 



147 



scarcity it has often proved a valuable 

 adjunct to the farmer's supplies. It 

 is sometimes grown as a fence, but it 

 is not permanently suitable, as it is too 

 short lived and soon becomes ragged 

 and straggly. When protected in 

 coverts, it forms dense impenetrable 

 thickets, a safe shelter for the rabbit 

 and fox. It is of the first importance 

 to the shepherd as a winter food for 

 his flocks, when they are brought down 

 from the mountains to the lowland 

 moors. When the ground is covered 

 with snow the sheep will browse upon 

 the furze tops, and thrive and fatten 

 on them. When foggage is bare the 

 shepherd looks with anxiety for the 

 first fall of snow, to drive the sheep to 

 the whins, but when once the taste is 

 acquired they prefer them to other 

 food till the sweet early grasses appear 

 of returning spring. Hence a furze 

 covered common in proximity to the 

 highlands is very valuable. The furze 

 will not thrive at a higher altitude 

 than nine hundred feet, and is liable 

 to be killed by severe frosts. The 

 only way of securing a permanent 

 crop of furze is by periodical burning 

 every few years, when innumerable 

 plants immediately spring up, supple- 

 mented by various suckers from the 

 roots. Curiously enough fire is fatal 

 to a crop of broom, which is best 

 renewed by pulling up the old plants 

 by the roots, when young seedling 

 plants succeed to fill their places. An 



instrument used by the shepherds in 

 Scotland for extracting the old plants 

 is called a " broom dog.'" The natural 

 life of a plantation of broom is about 

 twelve to fifteen years, when it gradually 

 dies out and the land rests for several 

 years before it produces another crop, 

 but if in the meantime the ground be 

 disturbed the young seedlings spring 

 away at once. A variety of the 

 common gorse, called the Irish furze, 

 because it was first discovered in Lord 

 Londonderry's park in Ireland, has the 

 spines soft and succulent, and therefore 

 more palatable to horses and cattle. 

 But as it rarely produces seed, the 

 propagation by cuttings has proved an 

 insuperable obstacle to its wide 

 cultivation. It is to be hoped that 

 the experimental efforts to make 

 ensilage of gorse will prove successful, 

 as it would be one step towards 

 solving the problem of making our 

 waste shingly moors in some degree 

 productive. Besides the common gorse 

 {Ulex Uurqpceus), siRothei species (U. 

 nanus) of a dwarf, erect, and rigid habit, 

 with deeper golden flowery, is perhaps 

 the most abundant on the dry downs 

 of Southern England. Both furze and 

 broom are generally distributed through- 

 out the entire length and breadth of the 

 kingdom, and are common everywhere 

 except in the extreme north. They 

 have been both introduced into the 

 Orkney Islands. Where they are 

 about the biggest bush in that treeless 



