182 FURZE. COWHAGE. 
are plaited into mats, carpets, coverings for plants, 
baskets, ropes, and even shoes. A great portion of 
these twigs was formerly exported to different French 
ports in the Mediterranean, particularly to Marseilles ; 
but, in 1783, on account of the employment of which it 
deprived the Spanish people in working them, their 
exportation was prohibited by the government. 
195. FURZE, GOl&ZE, or WHIN (Ulex Europaeus), 
is a well-known thorny shrub, which is common on heaths and 
waste ground in almost every part of England. 
The chief use to which furze is applied, is for the 
beating of ovens ; and, in this respect, it is valuable, 
from its burning rapidly, and emitting a great degree of 
heat. Its ashes are used for a ley, which is of consi- 
derable service in the washing of linen. 
In some parts of the country, furze is sown on banks, 
round fields, for the purpose of a fence ; and it will 
flourish even close to the sea side, where the spray of 
the sea destroys almost every other shrub. But it will 
not bear severe cold, and it is often destroyed by intense 
frost. Furze does not often occur in the northern parts 
of our island. 
Horses, sheep, and cattle may be fed on this shrub ; 
and, in several places, the seeds of it are sown, either by 
themselves, or with barley, oats, or buck-wheat (126). 
The plants are mown a year afterwards. They will 
grow for several years, and produce from ten to fifteen 
tons per acre of food, which is equal, in quality and ex- 
cellence, to the same quantity of hay. They are bruised 
before they are eaten, either in a machine, or by heavy 
mallets on blocks of wood. This operation is requisite, 
in order to break the prickles, and prevent these from 
being injurious to the mouths of the animals that eat 
them. 
196. COWHAGE, or COW-ITCH, is a sharp and barbed 
kind of down or hair, which thickly clothes the pods of a 
lean-like climbing plant (Dolichos pruriens, Fig. 53), that 
