PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
103 
tfimc. 
(1) So I charm’d their ears, ' 
That calf-like they my lowing follow’d through 
Tooth’d Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns. 
Tempest , iv. 1, 178. 
(2) Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren 
ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything.— Ibid ., i. 1, 70. 
We now call the Ulex Europceus either Gorse, or Furze, or 
Whin; but in the sixteenth century I think that the Furze 
and Gorse were distinguished (see Gorse), and that the brown 
Furze was the Ulex. It is a most beautiful plant, and with its 
golden blossoms and richly scented flowers is the glory of our 
wilder hill-sides. It is especially a British plant, for though it 
is found in other parts of Europe, and even in the Azores and 
Canaries, yet I believe it is nowhere found in such abundance 
or in such beauty as in England. Gerard says, “ The greatest 
and highest that I did ever see do grow about Excester, in the 
West Parts of England ; ” and those that have seen it in Devon¬ 
shire will agree with him. It seems to luxuriate in the damp, 
mild climate of Devonshire, and to see it in full flower as it 
covers the low hills that abut upon the Channel between 
Ilfracombe and Clovelly is a sight to be long remembered. It 
is, indeed, a plant that we may well be proud of. Linnaeus 
could only grow it in a green-house, and there is a well-known 
story of Dillenius that when he first saw the Furze in blossom 
in England he fell on his knees and thanked God for sparing 
his life to see so beautiful a part of His creation. The story 
may be apocryphal, but we have a later testimony from another 
celebrated traveller who had seen the glories of tropical scenery, 
and yet was faithful to the beauties of the wild scenery of 
England, Mr. Wallace bears this testimony: “ I have never 
seen in the tropics such brilliant masses of colour as even 
England can show in her Furze-clad commons, her glades 
of Wild Hyacinths, her fields of Poppies, her meadows of 
