THE HEATHER. 187 



respectively represented in the vegetation of certain 

 British districts. 



Similar remarks will apply to the occurrence of 

 the beautiful ciliated heath (E. cilidris), which is 

 frequent on the north coast of Cornwall, and is 

 found near Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire, as well as 

 in the district of Connemara, and which is a native 

 of Portugal, and also to the only British species 

 which now remains to be noticed namely, the 

 E. Mackaii, for which but two stations are known 

 namely, Connemara and the Sierra del Peral, in 

 the Asturias.* It is curious that the plant was dis- 

 covered in these two places in the same year. 



The English name of heath is supposed by Bicheno, 

 to be derived from Eithen, the Celtic word either for 

 furze, " or any plants of a similar nature/' though it 

 must be allowed that the idea pre-supposes consider- 

 able latitude of observation on the part of our ances- 

 tors. While the botanical Erica is by some traced to 

 the Greek word signifying to break, on account of the 

 extreme brittleness of the plant. Calluna, how- 

 ever, has a better foundation, being derived from a 

 word meaning, as Sir W. J. Hooker supposes, either 

 to cleanse or to adorn,^- terms which we are, there- 

 fore, warranted in considering as convertible in the 

 language of the beauty-loving and refined Greek. 

 It may be observed, that it is an error to separate 

 the words heath and heather ; we have heard intel- 

 ligent persons divided in opinion as to what par- 

 ticular plant constituted the heather of Scotland, 



* See Hooker's " British Flora." 

 t Cp. Callunterion and Calluntirion. 



