The smell of coconuts

At the moment the links are covered in acres of glowing golden gorse. In 1736 the great Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus came to London for a brief meeting with patrons and gardeners at the Chelsea Physic Garden. It is said that when he landed in England he fell on his knees and wept for joy at the sight of our gorse bushes. Oscar Wilde later enjoyed the story and made much of Linnaeus giving thanks for gorse to God. Although doubt has been cast on this story Linnaeus was responsible for giving gorse its scientific name of Ulex europaeus L.
The sweet coconut scent of the gorse always takes me back to my days in Fiji and the overwhelming smell of the copra sheds down at the docks in Suva.