136 VACCINIUM. CALLUNA. 



360. V. oxYCOccus. Cranbm'p : and it must be the Crawberry 

 of Tannahill. — " He pu'd me the Crawberry, ripe frae the boggy 

 fen." Works, p. 31. Sphagnous bogs. B. In a bog N. of Sweet- 

 hope farm, Rev. Thos. Brown. Lurgie Loch, Mr. R. Hislop. R. 

 In the bog below Smailholm Tower. D. Haiden dean. Bog below 

 Shoreswood Hall. N. Moors between Belford and Wooler, plentiful, 

 Thompson. Ford Woodend moss. Base of Yevering Bell, Dr. F. 

 Douglas. Learmouth bog ; and bog to the W. of Hoselaw Loch. 

 June-July. — Gradually becoming rare from the encroachments of 

 the farmer. I can remember the time when a small quantity of 

 native Cranberries were annually sold in Berwick ; but the practice 

 is obsolete, and the fact may soon be disputed. There was once a 

 " cranberry boag where the grounds of Tweed mouth, Ord and Scre- 

 merston doe meet," of such extent and vulgar notoriety as to have 

 been made a land-mark ; but were other boundary unknown, it might 

 now require a nice and judicial enquiry to determine the exact posi- 

 tion of this bog. — A monstrous growth is occasionally foiuid on this 

 pretty creeping shrub, which has much the appearance of a parasi- 

 tical plant, and has been mistaken for one. It is a succulent branch 

 which grows from the stem and rises to the height of two or three 

 inches, the leaves upon it being alternate, spathulate, fleshy, entire, 

 and covered with a mealy powder. 



361. Erica tetralix. Boggy places on moors, frequent. A 

 very beautiful species, which has occasionally white flowers. It 

 descends on Ross links almost to the sea-level. July-Aug. 



362. E. ciNEREA. Heaths, abundant. A variety with white 

 flowers occurs occasionally ; and, on the banks of Coldingham lough, 

 I have gathered it with rose-tinted flowers, — an eminently beautiful 

 plant. July-Aug. — This is the ^i)f-?^fat!)fr of the Lammermuir 

 herds, who thus ungallantly indicate their opinion of its inferiority 

 to the Ling. — Where they grow to a sufficient height *, all our 

 Heathers are cut for thatch ; and muggers and gypsies make with 

 them besoms and scrubbers for cleaning milk bowies, &c. " Erica 

 cinerea, when well-grown, makes barn-brooms superior to those made 

 of Calluna vulgaris, which are often hard and stumpy, and not so 

 tough and flexible as the former." A. Hepburn. 



363. Calluna vulgaris. Hooker's Brit. Flora (1830), i. 177. 

 fijcatijcv : |l3C'?^cat]^fr. — The principal covering of our moors, and 

 descends without reluctance to the sea-coast. The beautiful flowers 

 are commonly rose-coloured, but a white variety is occasionally met 

 vnth ; and another variety with a hoary or pubescent foliage is not 

 uncommon. The Calluna is called l^fslUcatijtr from its superiority 

 as a fodder, for sheep have an aversion to other heaths, on account, 

 shepherds say, of their bitter taste. As the old plants become woody, 

 it is customary, and has been so from the earliest times, to burn the 



* " The hyest hetli that ever I saw grovveth in Northumberland, which 

 is so highe that a man maye hide himselfe in it." — W. Turner, 



