CHAP. LXIX. £RICA^CE.E. 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 jNIountains, 

 it grows at the height of 3000 ft. above the level of the sea. In deciduous 

 copse-woods, it commonly gives place to J'accinium 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 Calluna, 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 in a state of 

 nature, which man has not applied to a great variety of useful purposes. The 

 most hnportant 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 ISO-l, 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. In most 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 



