CONVERSATION IX. 



HEATH KUE FLAX BALSAM GERANIUM WOOD-SORREL - 

 CLOVE BUCK WHEAT GOOSEFOOT LEGUMINOUS, ALMOND, 

 APPLE, AND ROSE TRIBES. 



ONE day the children saw a villager mending 

 the thatch, of his cottage, not with straw, but with 

 heather, which their father explained to them to 

 be the elastic tufts of the common ling, a plant 

 that covers a large extent of open country, espe- 

 cially in the north, and affords both food and 

 shelter to abundance of grouse. Mary had a few 

 dried branches of the three plants of the heath 

 tribe which are common in this country, and these 

 were the common or fine-leaved heath,* with very 

 thick clusters of purplish flowers, and little tufts 

 of smooth leaves arranged three together on the 

 stem, the cross-leaved heath, | with a small tuft 

 of rose-coloured flowers quite at the top of the 

 stem, and fringed leaves four together on the stem 

 and the common ling,J which grows to a much 

 larger size than the others, and has pinkish flowers 

 scattered along the whole stem. 

 * Erica cinerea. t E. tetralix. J Cattuna mdgaris. 



