﻿spreading, striated, green, pungent, smoother, permanent thorns. 

 Leaves few, scattered, small, solitary, awl-shaped, entire, spinous- 

 pointed, roughish or hairy, deciduous. Peduncles fjloiver-stalks ) 

 solitary or in pairs, single-flowered. Bracteas 2, at the base of the 

 calyx, small, egg-shaped, loose, or spreading, and like the pedun- 

 cles and calyx, densely downy. Calyx (fig. 1.) of a brownish yel- 

 low or rusty colour, downy, its teeth very small, and so close 

 together, as to be scarcely distinguishable. Corolla half as long 

 again as the calyx, of a bright golden yellow, with a peculiar op- 

 pressive scent. Legumes (figs. 7 & 8.) oblong, downy, about half 

 an inch long, bursting elastically in dry hot weather, with a crack- 

 ling noise, and scattering their seeds extensively. Seeds (figs. 9 & 

 10.) somewhat heart-shaped, smooth and shining, with a very pro- 

 minent cloven crest. 



A very ornamental variety with double flowers is cultivated in 

 gardens. 



Dr. Withering observes, that Furze is in some respects a very hardy plant, 

 and will make fences upon the bleaker mountains, and close to the sea-side, 

 where the spray of the sea kills almost every other shrub ; but it is impatient 

 of cold, is often destroyed by severe frost, and is rarely found in the northern 

 parts of our island. It is frequently employed for hedges, but, excepting where 

 it occupies a considerable breadth on a raised mound, it does not last long, get- 

 ting naked at the bottom. The chief use of this shrub, however, is to afford firing 

 for the poor, and when employed for this purpose, it ought not to be cut oftener 

 than every founh year. In Cornwall, and many other parts of England, it is 

 used for heating ovens, which it does very soon, burning rapidly, and with a 

 great degree of heat; it was also used for burning lime j but since the general 

 diffusion of coal by canals and improved roads, its relative importance for fuel 

 is greatly diminished. It has been recommended as a green food for cattle ; for 

 this purpose the shoots should not be more than two years old, and they require 

 to be passed between rollers, or beaten by a mallet, to bruise the ligneous parts 

 and the thorns. Horses are said to be exceeding fond of it, but it should be 

 used soon after it has been bruised. — Dr. Anderson says, that cattle eat it per- 

 fectly well when thoroughly bruised, and grow as fat upon it as upon turnips. 

 It is said that furze contains salt, which is the reason that horses and cattle fed 

 on it soon get a clear skin. 



Provence appears to be the boundary south, of furze; northwards it does not 

 grow in Sweden or Russia. Linnjf.us lamented that he could hardly preserve 

 it alive in a green-house ; it is reported, that when this great man came to Eng- 

 land, in 1736, he was so much delighted with the golden blossoms of this shrub, 

 which he saw for the first time on the commons near London, that he fell on his 

 knees in a transport of admiration, and offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to 

 the great Author of Natuie. It was with this plant that the late Sir James 

 Edward Smith commenced the study of Botany. “ 1 became desirous at the 

 age of eighteen,” says this excellent Botanist, “ of studying Botany as a 

 science. The only book I could then procure was Berkenhout, Hudson’s Flora 

 having become extremely scarce. I received Berkenhout on the 9th of January, 

 1778, and on the 11th began, with infinite delight, to examine the Ulex Euro- 

 pceus, the only plant then in flower. I then first comprehended the nature of 

 systematic arrangement and the Linnjean principles, little aware that at that 

 instant the world was losing the great genius, who was to be my future guide, 

 for Linnaeus died in the night of January the 11th, 1778.” Vide Tr. of Linn. 

 Soc. v. vii. p.299. “ After the decease of the younger Linnaus, in 1783, Sir 

 J. E. Smith purchased the Museum, Books, &c. of the immortal Swede. Since 

 the death of Sir James,” which took place on the 17th of Match, 1828, " they 

 have become the property of the Linnean Society — a society formed under the 

 immediate auspices of Sir James, its first President. Of this enthusiastic and 

 learned Botanist, we can truly say with SritENGEL, that he proved himself 

 ' dignissimus Li mux i hares.' ” Nat. Poetical Companion, p. 89. 



