This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V26", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
From an old Magazine. ines on the Ulex Europaeus, More Generally Known as the Furze.
EXTRACTED BY W. T. HARDING.
Let Burns and old Chauser write
The praise of the daisy to sing - Let Wordsworth of Celedine write,
And crown her the Queen of the spring; The hyacinth's classical fame
Let Milton embalm in his verse; Be mine the glad task to proclaim
The charms of untrumpeted Furze !
Of all other blooms when bereft,
And old Sol wears his wintry screen, Thy sunshining blossoms are left
To light up the common and green. Oh! why should they envy the peer,
His perfume of spices and myrrhs, When the poorest their senses may cheer
With incense diffused from the Furze?
It is bristled with thorns, I confess;
But so is the much flatter'd rose. Is the sweetbriar lauded the less
Because amid prickles it grows? 'Twere to cut off an epigram's point,
Or disfurnish a knight of his spurs, If we foolishly wish'd to dispoint
Its arms from the lance-bearing Furze !
Ye dabblers in mines, who would clutch
The wealth which their bowels enfold, See nature with Midas-like touch,
Here turns a whole common to gold. No niggard is she to the poor,
But distributes whatever is hers; And the wayfaring beggar is sure
Of a tribute of gold from the Furze !
Ye worldlings! learn hence to divide
Your wealth with the children of want, Nor scorn in your fortunes or pride,
To be taught by the commonest plant. For if wisdom the wisest may draw
From things humble, as reason avers; We, too, may receive heaven's law,
And beneficence learn from the Furze !
Mount Holly, N. J., Sept. 3d, 1883.
 
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