DISTRIBUTION OF THE HEATHER. 



lying between the Heather line and that of the cross- 

 leaved heath at about 2,000 feet, characterized by 

 the Heather without the heath. This comprehends 

 the highest mountains of England, Wales and Ire- 

 land, and all the great ranges of Scotland, and con- 

 tains by far the largest proportion of rare and beau- 

 tiful Alpine plants, being especially rich in Arctic 

 forms. Lastly, the Infer-Arctic Zone, bounded above 

 by the Erica and below by the bracken and the lim- 

 its of cultivation at about 1,400 feet. This distribu- 

 tion cannot, of course, be accepted as a fixed one. 



Rev. Hugh Macmillan, than whom the Heather 

 has no sweeter singer, thus writes in his "Holidays 

 on High Lands :" 



"The vegetation of the moorlands is exceedingly 

 varied and interesting. Its character is intermediate 

 between Arctic and Germanic type, reminding one, in 

 the prevalence of evergreen, thick, glossy-leaved plants 

 of the flora of Italy, which seems, from the evidence 

 of ancient records, to have undergone a remarkable 

 change in modern times, and now approximates In 

 its general physiognomy to the flora of dry mountain 

 regions. The plant which, above all others, is char- 

 acteristic of the moor is, of course, the common 

 Heather, or Ling. It is one of the most social of 

 all plants, covering immense tracts with a uniform 

 dusky robe, and claiming, like an absolute autocrat, 

 exclusive possession of the soil. 



"And yet, though capable of growing in the bleak- 

 est spots, and enduring the utmost extremes of tem- 

 perature, its distribution in altitude and latitude is 

 singularly limited. It ascends only to a certain height 



25 



