178 WILD FLOWERS. 



with a lattice- work composed of the same plant 

 twisted into ropes ; and heather, cut with the sods 

 on which it grows, not only furnishes his fuel, 

 but yields the very best known for the purposes of 

 baking. Nor are these its sole domestic uses : in 

 the year 1766, the Irish parliament awarded a 

 grant of J?700 to some persons who were supposed 

 to have invented a method of tanning leather with 

 heath, boiled in a copper vessel. It had, however, 

 been used in the Western Isles for this purpose, from 

 time immemorial. These same islanders too, and 

 the Welsh peasantry appear to have imparted to 

 the great clothiers of Yorkshire a knowledge of the 

 value of the plant as a yellow dye, with whom it 

 has become an article of considerable attention 

 and importance. It is carefully mown when in full 

 flower, dried like hay, and made into ricks, or placed 

 in barns until required. The dye produced from it, 

 though not so permanent as either weld or quercitron 

 (quercus tinctorial) is of a far more brilliant yellow 

 than these, or indeed than any other woollen-dye ; 

 while, if alum be used as the mordant, a fine, rich 

 orange is produced. Moreover, as all good British 

 housewives know, the heather, (especially the Erica 

 cinerea, and the Calluna vulgaris) makes the best 

 of brooms. The ling (G. vulgaris) is an admirable 

 edging for garden-beds, and bears clipping, says Sir 

 W. J. Hooker, quite as well as box. On the moors the 

 sprays and blossoms of the heath furnish the grouse 

 with food ; andj though not particularly liked by 

 sheep, it is frequently very valuable as a fodder 

 when other herbage is scarce, being a corrective 



