390 ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
TJlex Europceus , common furze. 
„ Gallii, planchons furze. 
„ nanus , dwarf furze. 
Perhaps, however, these are but mere varieties, and, at 
all events, our business is more particularly with the 
U. Europceus. This is one of the commonest plants in our 
island, and, indeed, it would seem, to be more plentiful with 
us than in any other part of the world, notwithstanding that 
the spread of agriculture and the extended enclosure of 
commons and waste grounds have done so much to lessen it 
from one end of England to the other. 
At the present moment the furze is in the full blaze of its 
beauty, verifying the words of Cowper— 
“ The common, overgrown with fern, and rough 
With prickly gorse, that shapeless, and deformed, 
And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom, 
And decks itself with ornaments of gold, 
Yields no unpleasing ramble.” 
The common furze is the largest form, and it is likewise 
the most spinous, but its spines are not like those of so many 
other spinous plants, but many of them are abortive leaves, 
probably a midrib ending in a spine representing a leaf 
without its lamina. It is interesting to watch the germina¬ 
tion of a seed of the furze, which begins life like so many 
trifoliate plants, first with the two rounded cotyledon leaves, 
next a single more or less heart-shaped haft, then a true 
trifoliate leaf, which, as the plant gets older, is converted 
into unifoliate spines, while the branches all take on the 
armature of spinous terminations. 
We have said that just now the gorse is in all its glory, 
but, curiously enough, it is really difficult to find a month 
in which some few of its showy flowers may not present 
themselves, which has given rise to the common saying 
of— 
“ When gorse is out of bloom, 
Then kissing’s out of tune.” 
A gorse-common or a furze-brake will be well known 
everywhere. It is a welcome covert for the fox and various 
kinds of game, and the bushes form a home for very many 
insects. 
The gorse is used for various economic purposes; when 
old it is useful for fuel, and in some parts is rnueh employed 
by bakers for heating their ovens. The cottager also finds 
it useful, especially in summer, its short-lived heat being 
just enough to boil the tea-kettle. 
