CHAP, LXIX. ERICACER. CALLU NA. 1085 
more especially in the northern countries. It is found in Iceland, Greenland, 
and Kamtschatka, and in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In Britain, it 
flourishes best in the upland and moorland zones; but it descends to the sea 
level in the south of England. In the north, and on the Grampian Mountains, 
it grows at the height of 3000 ft. above the level of the sea. In deciduous 
copse-woods, it commonly gives place to Vaccinium Myrtillus; but in open 
pine groves it maintains its ground. It covers extensive tracts in France and 
Germany, and it is common in all the temperate parts of the Russian empire, 
and probably, also, in Siberian Russia. 
History. As some species of heath were known to the Greeks and Romans, 
it is not improbable that they were acquainted with the Callina, though it is 
not included specifically in the plants of Theophrastus. It is mentioned by all 
the modern European writers on plants, and more especially by those of the 
northern parts of Europe, as its numerous names in northern languages imply. 
It is described by Gerard, who says that it is “ the heath that the ancients 
took to be the right and true heath; ”’ but he does not state his grounds for 
this assertion. 
Properties and Uses. There are few plants, that are abundant ina state of 
nature, which man has not applied to a great variety of useful purposes. The 
most important use of the heath, throughout Europe, is as an herbage plant. In 
the Highlands of Scotland, in the north of Sweden, and in all heathy countries 
with an imperfect agriculture, cattle and sheep browse on the young shoots in 
the winter and spring, when they can procure no other food. It is true, these 
shoots are powerfully astringent, and not very nutritive; and they even affect 
the milk of cows not accustomed to eat them, and turn it red ; but, neverthe- 
less, they are valuable for keeping the animals alive till the season of pasture 
grass returns, According to some French agricultural writers, the mutton of 
sheep fed upon heath, or upon pastures in which the heath abounds, is of a 
richer flavour, and more nourishing, than that which is fed on grass only; and 
the wool of such sheep is said to be produced in larger quantities. Heath is 
used, both in Scotland and Sweden, for thatching houses, for heating ovens, 
for making besoms, scrubbing-brushes, and baskets; for weaving into fences, 
for covering underground drains, and for a great variety of rural purposes. 
In the Western Highlands, Dr. Walker informs us, it is twisted into ropes ; 
and the walls of the cabins of the inhabitants of that bleak coast are formed 
with alternate layers of heath, and a sort of cement made of black earth and 
straw. The Highlanders there not only employ it in the walls of their houses, 
and for covering them instead of thatch, but they make their beds of it; 
and this was the case, in 1804, and may still be so, in the summer dwellings, 
called sheelings, on the Grampian Mountains, at no great distance from Perth. 
The walls of these summer lodgings are built of turf; and on the floor of the 
apartment, about 3 ft. from the wall, and parallel to it, a fence made of stakes, 
and twined with long heath, partitions off a space for sleeping in ; and no other 
bedding is put into this space than a thick layer of heath. Inmost of the Western 
Isles, the inhabitants, in Pennant’s time, dyed their yarn yellow by boiling it in 
water with the green tops and flowers of this plant: and woollen cloth boiled 
in alum water, and afterwards in a strong decoction of the tops, comes out of 
a fine orange colour. In some of these islands, leather is tanned in a strong 
decoction of heath. Formerly the young tops are said to have been used 
alone, to brew a kind of ale; and Boethius relates that this liquor was much 
used by the Picts. In some of the Western Isles, it is said, they still brew ale 
with one part malt, and two parts of the young tops of heath, sometimes add- 
ing hops. The flowers of heath of every kind abound in honey ; and those of 
this and the other indigenous species are much frequented by bees. In 
various parts of Scotland and the north of England, bee-hives are carried, in 
the beginning of August, from the cultivated to the heathy districts, for the 
sake of the flowers; where they remain two or three months, and are brought 
back in the autumn. The wood makes excellent charcoal; and the ashes are 
rich in potass, which accounts for the diuretic properties of the plants, The 
