yet it cannot be denied that the heaths of different contiguous hills are extremely different both in kind and degree. Red Heather (E. cinérea) is the only species found for miles together on the greywacke of the Isle of Man; E. Tétralix the only species for several hundred yards on Blackstone Edge; the Ling is the only species for miles on the granite of Goat-fell, in the Isle of Arran. Each of these species may be seen in sufficient quantity wherever bog soil is found, but they may reasonably be claimed by those districts only where with equal climates they are produced in greatest luxuriance; and few observers of the common features of a landscape can have failed to notice the great diversity of character in these universal natives of our moors, on the different geological arrangements of the country. Few can have omitted to remark the total want of them on bogs whose substratum is chalk or mountain lime; and many have been delighted with their abundance and surpassing beauty on the primitive ranges of Wales and Scotland. The Ling of Pont Aberglaslyn, near Beddgelert, yields to none in the richness of its flowers; and that of the gravel range of Avan, in the Frith of Clyde, is often three and a half feet in height, arborescent and erect, like the finest specimens of Cape heaths cultivated in our greenhouses. The poor natives of that island make an economical substitute for hemp from its twigs; and the roots occasionally thrown out of the soil by the mountain torrent are two inches in thickness, and capable of a high polish, being nearly as hard as ebony. The Cape of Good Hope itself, which has supplied our exotic collectors with nearly 300 species of this genus, is one of the finest granite ranges in the world." Heather tall and stout like this is rare, but every one can recal wide tracts of land which the plants cover in great luxuriance, especially in Scotland, which the poet has distinguished as the "Land of brown Heath and shaggy wood." Heath is the most social of plants, and it has been said that if other plants were to occupy the surface of the earth in the same proportion, there would not be room for more than five thousand species; though now, as Humboldt observes, it is probable that the actual number of species exceeds that spoken of in the old myth of Zendavesta. This tells that the primeval creating Power called forth from the blood of the Sacred Bull 120,000 different forms of plants; Professor Lindley says, that 92,000 plants are recorded, and that others are daily being added to the list. The aspect of the Heath vegetation is remarkably striking, the fine-leaved Heath and Ling being the representatives in our land of the large family of Ericea, so numerous in southern regions, that in South Africa it quite determines the character of the vegetation. Immense tracts of land also in the north of Europe are quite covered with heather, which often grows so close that no other plant can find room on the soil; though on other parts it is somewhat less dense, and there bushes of Juniper, Andromeda, and Ledum, take the place of our furze and broom, while immense quantities of bog moss and hair moss form a thick turfy carpet. It always grows on what is termed by agriculturists a sour soil, just such a soil as will admit of no culture, and this soil is abundant in northern Europe. But the Heath family has in the northern hemisphere but few representatives; the Cape of Good Hope may be called the country of the Heaths, though in the extreme south of Europe, and also in the Isle of Teneriffe, most beautiful arborescent species grow to a great height. Meyen says, that these have in their general effect a great resemblance to certain forms of a fir-tree tribe, their small needle-like leaves being, however, beautifully adorned by masses of elegant flowers, which are often of the most brilliant colours. Mr. Banbury, in his Report on his Botanical Travels in South Africa," says, that the Erice of the Cape, which, in their own country are not less beautiful than in our hothouses, fall into three divisions, according to their locality. Some grow in company in great masses, like the European heaths, and cover large spaces; others, though very abundant, yet vegetate in a scattered manner among other plants; and, finally, there are species which are only found singly here and there in a cleft of the rock. He tells us that E. cerinthoides has the widest area, and is even found eastward of Grahamstown. But we must return to our common fine-leaved purple Heath, which, however, may be found on rare occasions decked with bells white as snow, save where they are varied by the little black-tipped anthers. The cottagers whose dwellings are about the moors, use it for many domestic purposes, and many a lowly home of worth and piety on Scottish moorland bids defiance to the bleak winds and storms by its well-woven thatch, made wholly of heather or of straw, bound down by a lattice-work of twigs. The cottage walls, too, are sometimes formed of alternate layers of heath and a cement made of black earth and straw-for black earth is always to be found where heather blooms-and where it has from time to time given its decayed remains as a manure to the soil. Many a hardy Highlander asks no softer couch than a strewing of heather; and even little children learn to turn the plant to good account, by twisting it into a strong sort of rope. In many of the Western Islands yarn is dyed of a yellow colour by means of its young twigs and flowers; and woollen cloth, first boiled in alum-water and then immersed in this decoction, becomes of a bright golden yellow. The Heath, too, is very astringent, and is sometimes used in tanning leather. Leather is said to become sooner saturated with heath-tan than with that made of bark; and in 1776 the discovery of its use was laid before the House of Commons in Ireland, and the account was ordered to be printed. Old traditions, still extant in Ireland, tell that the Danes made beer of the Heath, but Boethius relates this of the Picts. The historian says, that in the deserts and moors of the realm there grows a herb named Heather, which is very nutritive to beasts, birds, and especially to bees, and which in the month of June produces flowers as sweet as honey, and that of this the Picts made a delicious beer. The manner of making the heather beer perished with the extermination of the Picts, as they never showed it to any except to those of their own blood. Leyden adds, that the traditions of Teviotdale say, that when the Picts were exterminated, a father and son alone remained after the slaughter, and that being brought before Kenneth the Conqueror, life was offered to the father on condition of his revealing the secret of making this liquor; and the son was put to death before his eyes in order to induce the old man to consent. This very exercise of cruelty, however, determined him more resolutely to keep the secret from the conqueror, and he said, "Your threats might have influenced my son, but they have no effect on me." The king then suffered the Pict to live, and the secret remained untold. A recent writer, referring to this, says, "It is just possible that the grain of truth contained in this tradition may be, that all the northern nations, as the Swedes still do, used the narcotic Gale (Myrica Galé), which grows among the heather, to give bitterness and strength to their barley beer; and hence the ignorant belief that the beer was made chiefly of the heather itself. While we write, a newspaper paragraph has come under our eye, which states that a "Mr. Harper, of Galway, shows to his visitors a large amount of bottled beer, manu factured by a metropolitan house from wild heath." We should put more faith in this paragraph if the author or brewer would be good enough to substitute the word flavoured for manufactured. A liquid, called heather beer, was commonly made in the Highlands some years since, and as the verse says,— "Sir Geoffrey the bold of the cup laid hold A Highland friend of the author assures her that in summer-time, his father, a Scottish clergyman, commonly brewed a liquid so called, and of which the ingredients were gathered from a neighbouring moor. As this gentleman, however, cannot remember the exact mode of making it, it is not improbable that the bitter and narcotic Bog-myrtle may have entered into its composition. He says of this beer, that it was very pleasant in flavour, brisk and sparkling, but that unless drunk almost immediately after the brewing it became very sour. Our red or purple heather is indeed a boon to bees, but some persons say that honey made from it is narcotic-it is certainly of a dark hue. Leyden, in his lines on the flower, refers to its use to the insect race :— "The tiny heath-flowers now begin to blow, The powdery bells that gleam in purple bloom, Fling from their scented cups a sweet perfume; While from their cells, still moist with morning dew, The wandering wild bee sips the honied glue, On Teviot's hills beneath the Pictish sway." The Heath is the Heide of the Germans, and by the French the different species, with the Ling, are included in the name of Bruyère. In Italy the plant is called Erica, and in Spain Brezo. The Scripture writers refer to the Heath: "And he shall be like the heath in the desert," was the comparison of the prophet Jeremiah. But the Heath is so rare a plant in Palestine that there is little doubt but that the Juniper was intended. ** Corolla bell-shaped, or shortly tubular; anthers protruded. 5. E. vágans (Cornish Heath).-Leaves 3 or 4 in a whorl, crowded, very narrow, smooth; flowers bell-shaped, shorter than the stamens, forming a leafy regular tapering cluster; anthers without awns; root perennial. This plant, which is well distinguished when in flower by its truly bell-shaped corolla, is very abundant on heaths on the southern promontory of Cornwall. It occurs in one or two other places in that county, and on the coast of Waterford. The Rev. C. A. Johns says of it-" The stems are much branched, and in the upper parts very leafy, and from two to four feet high. The flowers are light purple, rose-coloured, or pure white. In the purple variety the anthers are dark purple; in the white, bright red; and in all cases they form a ring outside the corolla until they have shed their pollen, when they droop to the sides. On the Goonhilley Downs in Cornwall, all these varieties of the Heath grow together in the greatest profusion, covering many hundreds of acres, and almost excluding the two species so common elsewhere." It flowers from July to September. 6. E. Mediterránea (Mediterranean Heath).-Leaves 4 in a whorl, linear, smooth, flat above, convex, with a central furrow below; corolla cup-shaped, twice as long as the calyx; anthers without awns; flowers in leafy racemes; bracts above the middle of the flower-stalk; root perennial. This plant, which is common in our gardens, and which there grows slowly to a large size, has, even when wild, a stem from two to five feet high, with many upright rigid branches; these terminate in flesh-coloured flowers about twice as long as the calyxes, the latter are also coloured. It is found on mountain bogs in the west of Mayo and Galway, Ireland, and on a few other spots in this kingdom. The plants which we have in the garden were introduced here from Spain long before it was known to be a native of this kingdom. 2. CALLÚNA (Ling). 1. C. vulgáris (Common Ling, or Heather).-Leaves small, more or less downy (in one variety hoary), arranged in 4 rows on opposite sides of the stem and branches, each leaf having 2 small spurs at the base; corolla small, bell-shaped, shortly-stalked, drooping, nearly sessile; root perennial. This plant, which is very abundant on heaths and moors, is a small shrub, with tiny bright green leaves, and its little flowers of a rich purplish lilac are very numerous and beautiful in July and August. The flowers remain on the plant long after the seed has ripened, and will preserve their colour not alone on its rigid branches, but long after being gathered, often forming a bouquet for the winter mantelpiece. It is an exceedingly beautiful plant, varying from a slightly downy condition to an absolute hoariness of foliage, and occasionally bearing white blossoms. It is not often that the foliage is white with down, but Mr. George Luxford relates that, on one occasion, when visiting Mosely Common soon after dawn, his attention was arrested by the appearance of water at a spot where on a previous visit he knew that he had not seen any. On arriving at the place, he found that this appearance was occasioned by the reflection of the rays of the morning sun on a very heavy dew lying on the hoary Ling which at that place quite covered some gently sloping ground. "Callúna vulgaris, in all its states," says this botanist, "is a very elegant plant. The red and the white-flowered varieties, with their smooth, deep green, closely imbricated leaves, are pretty and delicate; the hoary one is very beautiful, although not possessing the exquisite silvery appearance of the stems and under side of the leaves of the Lady's Mantle and Hoary Cinquefoil; but of all the varieties the pre-eminently lovely one is that with double red flowers. This variety is found wild in Cornwall; a specimen in my herbarium has its branches covered for nearly its whole length with the crowded flowers, and sweeter resemblances of wreaths of roses cannot be conceived." The Ling is always one of the most ornamental plants in our British herbarium; we scarcely know of any other which so well preserves the tint both of its flowers and foliage for many years. The Ling grows in abundance on barren Alpine moors, where scarcely any other plant is to be found. It occurs in every part of Europe, and is extremely profuse in the northern countries. Linnæus mentions, in his "Flora Lappo |