94 MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



of Box, crowded flowers, and an acid, red berry, half 

 an inch in diameter. There is a fourth kind, the Cran- 

 berry (V actinium oxy coccus), but it belongs to the 

 peat-bog vegetation. It has red flowers and dark red 

 berries, about a quarter of an inch in diameter. There 

 / is some interest, we think, in noticing that the first 

 two kinds of Vaccinium lose their leaves at the 

 approach of winter, while the Cowberry and the Cran- 

 berry are evergreen. There is some value, we think, 

 in mastering on a holiday, with the help of Hooker's 

 " Students' Flora," or some similar book, the different 

 berry plants of the heath. Even if we forget them 

 before our next holiday comes, we have the satisfac- 

 tion of having refused to be "mole-eyed." 



Besides the heath plants which we have mentioned 

 there are other tenants often present, which are not 

 so characteristic shrubs like Juniper, Broom, and 

 Furze, small Willows (Salix aurita and Salix rep ens), 

 and various Grasses like Aira flexuosa and the May- 

 Weed Grass (Nardus stricta), which is too harsh for 

 the Sheep to eat. 



But we have said enough. What we wish is a gen- 

 eral picture of the Heather and the Heaths, the Crow- 

 berry and the Blaeberry, which in virtue of certain 

 fitnesses and habits, make the best of poor soil and 

 exposed situations. A heath is typically treeless, but 

 small Birches and Oaks are not uncommon, and an 

 occasional Scotch Fir may stand as a relic of past 

 times. For some heaths have taken the place of wood- 

 land that has degenerated. In regard to the Gorse, 

 or Whin (Ulex europceus), and the Broom (Cytisus 

 scoparius), which sometimes colonise heathland, it 

 is interesting to recall Professor Weiss's observa- 



