ON HEATH, DOWN AND MOOR 



271 



in whorls of four, each whorl forming a cross. The drooping flowers, 

 which appear during July and August, are usually rose-coloured, 

 occasionally white, and are arranged in close, terminal, one-sided 

 clusters. 



The Ciliated Heath {Erica ciliaris), perhaps the most beautiful 

 of the British species, is found only in the West of England, but is 

 really abundant on some of the Devon and Cornwall moorlands. It 

 is of a somewhat straggUng nature, and its ovate leaves, which 

 are downy above, and 

 fringed with stiff hau's, 

 are in whorls of three or 

 four. The flowers are 

 sometimes nearly half an 

 inch long, of a bright rose 

 or crimson colour, and are 

 arranged in broken, one- 

 sided racemes. The corolla 

 is pitcher-shaped, with four 

 lobes round the narro\\ 

 mouth. The plant reaches a 

 length of from twelve to 

 eighteen inches, and flowers 

 from June to September. 



Our last example of this 

 genus — the Bell Heather 

 or Fine-leaved Heath {E. 

 cinerea) — is, perhaps, the 

 commonest of all, for it 

 abounds on the moors and 

 heaths of nearly all parts of 



Britain. It is a very tough and wiry shrub, from one to two feet 

 high, with narrow leaves in whorls of three or four, and smaller 

 leaves in then- axils. The flowers vary in colour, being either 

 purple, crimson, rose, or occasionally white. They are in dense, 

 leafy racemes, not one-sided, but rather regularly whorled. The 

 time of flowering is from July to September. 



In the same order is the Common Ling {Calluna vulgaris) — a 

 straggUng shrub, from one to three feet high, bearing rose-coloured, 

 Ulac or white flowers from July to September. This shrub may be 

 identified at once by its leaves, which are very small, and closely 

 overlapping in four rows. Its flowers are small, drooping, shortly 



The bell Heather or Fine-leaved Heath. 



