DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. Ulex. 
831 
(U. na'nus. Calyx about tbe length of the blossom, with two dark- 
coloured spots at the base : smaller branches decumbent. 
shrub ; but it is impatient of cold, is often destroyed by severe frost, and is rarely found in 
the northern parts of our island. (When it can no longer exist in open exposed moors, it 
may still be observed in sequestered denes at a height of two thousand feet, in the north of 
England. Winch. Furze bushes, growing upon many downs in Wales, Devon, and 
Cornwall, assume commonly the appearance of large, green, dense balls, every tender leaf 
being constantly shorn away by the sheep and rabbits that frequent those places. E.) In 
Cornwall, where fuel is scarce, it is cultivated to advantage, and is generally cut to make 
faggots for heating ovens, which it does very soon, burning rapidly, and with a great 
degree of heat. (The burning of Furze and heath on commons between Candlemas and 
Midsummer, by stat. iv. and v. William and Mary, c. 23, is punishable with whipping and 
imprisonment; yet, on pretence that where the old covering is consumed, young plants 
will sprout up, and afford tender browse for cattle, fires are often unseasonably kindled 
which spread dasolation, and exhaust the soil: 
— - “ Crepitantibus urere flammis.” E.) 
The ashes are used to make ley. Team horses may be supported by this plant, if it be 
cut young and bruised in a mill to break the thorns. (Mr. Evans informs us that 
Mr. Davis, of Lachtony, near Kidwelly, cultivates ten acres of Furze, which he pro¬ 
pagated by seed; (six pounds to an acre is sufficient for this purpose. E.) With 
these Whins, which he cuts every year, he keeps his whole team and riding horses 
through the winter; he gives it mixed with hay to his horned cattle. The produce 
per acre is from 12 to 15 tons weight. A man will bruise 36 bushels per day. This 
plant, in some parts of Wales, grows to 10 or 12 feet high, and its stems are often cut 
for fuel. Goats, cows, sheep and horses feed upon the tender tops. During the winter of 
1813-1814, the bat-horses and mules of the British army in position before Bayonne 
were chiefly supported oy this kind of fodder, and the practice is general in the south of 
France.—In the Scilly Islands the chief food of the horses, or rather ponies, is the Furze 
which they find on the hills. “ This plant, which is as singular by its chevaitx-de-frise , 
branches, as enlivening by its golden blossoms, is only to be found in temperate climates.” 
There indeed 
ic The prickly Gorse, all shapeless and deformed, 
And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom. 
And decks itself with ornaments of gold.” Cowper. 
Furze was formerly used for burning lime, and for other agricultural and domestic purposes j 
but since the general diffusion of coal by canals, and improved roads its relative importance 
for fuel is greatly diminished. According to Evelyn, Furze was cultivated on poor lands in 
Devon and Herefordshire, and yielded a crop of fuel and fodder valuable as that of wheat. 
It also forms an excellent cover for game, and shelter for seedling forest trees. In calm 
and sunny weather the crackling of Furze bushes, occasioned by the explosion of their 
elastic pods, is distinctly audible. 
- 11 The path with tangling Furze o’er-run, 
When bursting seed-bells crackle in the sun.” 
The odour also exhaled from the incalculable myriads of blossoms, especially when 
lavishly wafted by some gentle gale athwart the traveller’s w r ay, is very delightful, 
though peculiar, and, as some think, resembling that of the honey with which the 
flowers are richly fraught. The climate of Sweden being too severe for the spontaneous 
production of this plant, Linnaeus had never seen it in perfection till on his visit to 
England ; when, on first beholding its brilliant and widely extended exuberance, he is said 
to have actually prostrated himself in a transport of admiration. We have ourselves 
witnessed the pleasurable emotion of far less ardent lovers of the beauties of nature, on 
viewing the golden expanse as exhibited in a Cornish May; and those even just landed 
from the 
— -— “ Litora myrtetis laetissima; ” 
Where 
“ E’en the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom.” 
s, 
vol. in. 
