BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
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plant is a shrub, growing from three to five feet high, and covered over with an amazing number of branched 
green spines, which are so numerous, as to prevent common observers from noticing the leaves, which are small, 
few in number, and soon fall off. The flowers, which are very abundant, appear among the spines ; and in the 
flowering season an elegant poet describes the plant as— 
“ the blossom’d Furze 
With golden baskets hung. Approach it not, 
For every flower has a troop of swords 
Drawn to defend it. It is the treasury 
Of fays and fairies.”— Hurdis. 
Cowper describes it as— 
“ The prickly gorse, that, shapeless and deform’d, 
And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom, 
And decks itself with ornaments of gold.” 
The Furze grows on the sea-coast close to the water’s edge; and not only remains uninjured, but flowers 
abundantly, even when washed by the spray of the sea. It is not found wild in Asia, Africa, or America, 
or even in the north of Europe ; but it grows to an enormous size in Spain, where plants have been known 
to attain the height of eighteen feet, with stems as thick as a man’s leg. In Sweden and Russia it is kept in 
a greenhouse. The double-blossomed Furze is very ornamental in gardens. There is said to be a variety with 
white flowers, but it is extremely rare. 
2. —THE DWARF FURZE. (Uj,ex nanus, Forster.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 743; 2nd ed., t. 991 ; and our fig. I Specific Character. —Teeth of the calyx lanceolate, spreading. 
2, in PI. 26. ! Bracteas minute, close-pressed. Branches recliniug. (Smith.) 
Description, &c —This plant is easily distinguished from the common Furze, not only by its dwarf 
stature, but by its flowering in winter instead of summer. Botanically it is distinguished by the calyx being 
downy, with very small bracts, instead of its being shaggy with large bracts; and in the spines being one or 
two-flowered, instead of many-flowered. 
THE IRISH FURZE. (U. strictus, Mackay.) 
This species is only found in the north of Ireland, and it differs decidedly from the common kinds in its 
upright habit of growth, and comparatively few flowers. Its spines also are so soft and succulent as to render 
its branches eatable by cattle, without any previous bruising; though this is also the case with the English species 
when grown rapidly in a moist climate. Botanically the Irish Furze agrees with U. europceus in its shaggy 
calyx ; and with U. nanus in its one or two-flowered spines. It flowers in June. 
GENUS II. 
THE GENISTA. (Genista, Lin .) 
Lin. Syst. MONADELPHIA DECANDRIA. 
Generic Character. — Calyx 2-lipped; the upper lip two-parted, J flat, compressed, or rather turgid, many-seeded, seldom few-seeded, not 
the lower three-toothed. Vexillum oblong. Keel oblong, straight, glandular. Shrubs with yellow flowers. (Dec.) 
not entirely restraining the stamens. Stamens monadelphous. Pod 
Description, &c. —There are only three species of this genus which are natives of Great Britain, and they 
are all very common weeds. The name of Genista signifies a little bush. The Linnfean class and order are the 
same as those of the Furze. 
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