302 



200. The Heaths. Now it is that the different species of heaths (Erica) appear in 

 their perfection of beauty, making glad the wilderness wherever they present them- 

 selves. Sandstone cliffs are empurpled with the flowers of the Erica cinerea, which 

 often, too, covers the sides of mountains to a considerable height; while, wherever a 

 weeping spring oozes upon the waste, the pale wax-like bells of the Erica Tetralix 

 droop in clusters to the ground. Sir Walter Scott has finely depicted in Marmion, a 

 sun-rise in a mountainous country, when the heath was in flower, and the first golden 

 rays fell upon the mountains — • 



" And as each heathy top they kiss'd 

 It gleam'd a purple amethyst." 

 ■* * But the mountain heather of the Scotch poets, which gives such a black 



aspect to the bleak hills of Scotland, is the ling, or common heath (Calluna vulgaris), 

 whose calyx, as well as corolla, is coloured ; and whose elegant attire, generally dif- 

 fused as it is in Europe, deserves every encomium it has received. When in full 

 flower, nothing can exceed the beauty presented by a near prospect of hills of bloom- 

 ing heather, while they offer to the way- worn wanderer a fragrant couch, on which he 

 may recline in luscious idleness, and obtain " divine oblivion of low-thoughted care." 

 From the extent of moorland in Scotland, that country has been generally distinguish- 

 ed as the " land of brown heath," and the clans of McDonald and McAlister bear two 

 of the species as their device : hence clouds, storms, and impending dreary rocks, are 

 images that unconsciously arise in our minds, when referring to the heather bells ; 

 and a modern writer, when descanting upon the " moral of flowers," has exclaimed — 

 " Since I've view'd thee afar in thine own Highland dwelling, 

 There are spells clinging round thee I knew not before ; 

 For to fancy's rapt ear dost thou ever seem telling 



Of the pine-crested rock and the cataract's roar.'' — Id. 



201. The White Water-lily. As the rose is the queen of the bower, so undoubtedly 

 is the lily the empress of the lake, and I have only done my duty in thus testifying 

 my admiration, as far as she is concerned ; but I have merely sketched her figure as 

 she reclines upon her liquid throne, realizing her poetical Indian name "Cumada," 

 or " Delight of the Waters ; " but there seems something so emblematical of purity 

 about this lovely plant, that the warning of Shakspeare not to paint it is singularly 

 appropriate, and I shall not soil the fair petals of the flower by touching farther upon 

 it. — Id. 



202. Wild Flowers of August. Summer ! ah, where has summer been this year? 

 is often a common exclamation at its close ; for in ungenial years scarcely have we 

 been able to obtain a glimpse of it, before it is already perceived waning away. Fine 

 or wet, the flowers spring and fade, and the profusion of composite or syngenesious 

 ones now perceptible, gives serious warning that the summer is declining and the days 

 shortening. On the river side the tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) spreads its golden disk, 

 gilding the bank ; the hawkvveeds muster numerous on the walls ; the bristly-leaved 

 Picris echioides, and grove hawkweed (Hieracium sabaudum), in the woods; other 

 species appear throwing a golden hue upon the aftermath of meadows, or limestone 

 banks ; and the fleabane (Inula dysenterica) opens its specious disk upon the last days 

 of August. Other signs are, alas ! not wanting — the berries of the mountain ash are 

 flushed ; those of the water Guelder-rose (Viburnum Opulus), and the Rhamnus Fran- 

 gula, show their crimson beauties impending above the deep-flowing streams ; the 

 willow-herbs (Epilobium) empurple the beds of rivulets and wet ditches, and the mints 



