n red is his flour
Ye erbe smek lik in colowur."

FURZE.

(1) _Ariel._

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_, act iv, sc. 1 (178).

(2) _Gonzalo._

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of
barren ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything.

_Ibid._, act i, sc. 1 (70).

We now call the Ulex Europaeus 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 Devonshire 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 greenhouse, 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 Buttercups and
Orchises, carpets of yellow, purple, azure blue, and fiery crimson,
which the tropics can rarely exhibit. We have smaller masses of colour
in our Hawthorns and Crab trees, our Holly and Mountain Ash, our Broom,
Foxgloves, Primroses, and purple Vetches, which clothe