HEATH OE LINGL 



Calluna vulgaris. Nat. Ord., 

 Ericaceae. 



OT perhaps so attractive as 

 jp% the heather, Erica cinerea, 

 :v^; already figured by us, the 

 present species is even more 

 abundant, and this, too, 

 although the heather is 

 found everywhere on our 

 northern moorland tracts 

 and the great commons and 

 wastes in the southern 

 counties. We get so accus- 

 tomed to using words without 

 a full consideration of their 

 meanings, and what is involved in 

 them, that we may be forgiven if 

 we here point out that these great 

 open commons are often called heaths 

 from the simple fact that various species of heath form their 

 most characteristic covering and adornment, and a vast 

 purple expanse of heath in the sunlight is one of the most 

 delightful pictures on which the eye can gaze. Though we 

 naturally associate the idea of the heath with a wide and 

 breezy expanse, the soil on which it grows is often suitable 

 for tree-planting. In an essay, entitled, " Wild Plants 



