216 ERlCACEvE 



an unfailing supply, and the bees Avork upon it in swarms throughout the 



hours of sunshine. Leyden, in his lines on the flower, refers to its use to the 



insect race : — 



" The tiny lieath-flowers now begin to blow, 

 The russet moor assumes a richer glow, 

 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 lioney'd glue. 

 In wider circle makes the liquid liuni, 

 And far remote the mingled murmurs come. 



" When, panting, in his shepherd's plaid involved, 

 At noon the listless shepherd lies dissolved, 

 'Mid yellow crow-bells on the riv'let's banks, 

 AVhere knotted rushes twist in matted ranks. 

 The bi'eeze that trembles through the startling bent 

 Sings in his pleased ear of sweet content. 



" Sweet modest flower ! in lonely deserts dun, 

 Retiring still from converse with the sun, 

 ^Vllosc sweets invite the soaring lark to stoop, 

 And for thy cells the humid dew-bell scoop ; 

 Though unobtrusive all thy beauties shine. 

 Yet boast thou rival of the purple vine ! 

 For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh 

 In pearly cups which monarclis loved to quaff. 

 And frequent wake the wild inspired lay 

 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 Bnuferc. 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 hell-sliaped, or shortly tubular ; anthers protruded. 

 5. Cornish Heath {E. vdgans). — 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 ; perennial. 

 This plant, which is well distinguished when in flower by its truly bell- 

 shaped corolla, is very abundant on heaths in the west of Cornwall. The 

 Eev. 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 

 di'oop 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. The stamens in this and 

 the next species are not arranged with the anthers pressed against the style ; 

 in consequence they are not awned, the more open, bell-shaped corolla 

 making the mechanism of the bottle-shaped species less useful. The two 

 anthers of each stamen are quite distinct, being mounted on short branches 



