172 WILD FLOWERS. 



HEATHER. 



Erica et Calluna. 



Welsh, Grug, Myncog. Gaelic, Traoch. French, Bruyere. 

 German, Heide. Italian, Erica. Spanish, Brezo. 

 Russian, Weresk. Polish,WTjos . Danish, Lyng. Swedish, 

 Liung. 



NATURAL. 



Octandria. Corolliflorce. 



Encece. 



WE all know the heather-bells ; we all know how 

 the July's sun brings out the wide purply tracts 

 which mingle with the golden gleam of the furze 

 on our moorlands and mountain sides ; we all know 

 how well the Scotchman, and the bees, and the 

 artists, and the children, and the wild grouse, and 

 the child-hearted lover of nature, rejoice to see its 

 bloom ; we know the stern, yet poetic, associations 

 which attach to it as the " Highland " emblem ; and 

 we know that in the old days when our Danish in- 

 vaders held festival to commemorate their victories 

 over us, they drank deep to our speedy annihilation 

 in their much celebrated heather-ale ; but very few 

 of us know how it was that the secret of brewing 

 this liquor perished, and was never imparted to 

 Saxon or to Briton. For the solution of the mystery 

 we must turn to the wild Celtic legends of Southern 



