THE HEATHEE. 175 



" Edda." Atli, the husband of Gudrum, endeavours 

 to make Guniar, her brother, tell where his great 

 treasure, Yasupati, is buried. This he refuses to do 

 unless he sees the heart of his brother Hogni, who 

 shared the secret with him. At first Atli hesitates 

 to commit this murder, and brings the heart of 

 another victim to Gumar, who, however, knows 

 his brother's heart so well that, even in death, he 

 perceives by its quiverings that this is not his. Ava- 

 rice now overcomes the tyrant's more merciful feel- 

 ings. He slays Hogni, and brings his heart to his 

 brother ; who then, triumphantly exclaims that he 

 alone knows where the treasure lies hid, and that he 

 will never satisfy Atli in his inquiries ; after which 

 he quietly submits to his impending death by 

 vipers. 



Altogether the geography of the heath is one of 

 peculiar interest, and may be selected as presenting 

 to the student the second most signal example of 

 longitudinal distribution with which we are at pre- 

 sent acquainted ; the first being the cactus tribe. 

 The latter pertains exclusively to the New World ; 

 and the heath to the Old, where it extends, with 

 various interruptions (occasioned by excessive heat 

 and other climatal causes), yet with remarkable con- 

 tinuity from Norway to the Cape of Good Hope, 

 which seems a sort of head-quarters of the tribe, and 

 from whence we have received nearly four hundred 

 species, now in cultivation in this country ; the whole 

 of which were introduced, and, in fact, discovered, 

 subsequently to the claim made on Cape Colony by the 

 British Government in the year 1795. In the New 



