236 HEATHER 



Let us consider for a moment the structure of those 

 myriad little blossoms which give to Scottish mountains 

 their peculiar richness of colour. Most flowers which 

 attract admiration by their colour do so by means of 

 their corolla, as the rose, the violet, and the cowslip. In 

 others, like the crocus, the lilies, and the iris, calyx and 

 corolla combine to form the display ; but in the common 

 heather the calyx, coloured pink like the corolla, over- 

 laps and conceals it. In the crimson bell-heather, the 

 arrangement is exactly the reverse. The inflated corolla 

 is very conspicuous, its four petals being represented by 

 so many tiny lobes or teeth at the mouth, and the calyx 

 shrinks into four attenuated sepals at the base of the 

 flower. 



We are accustomed to speak of the common heath or 

 ling as 'Scottish heather'; but, in truth, that is rather 

 an arrogant appropriation of what is, of all the great 

 heath family, the most widely distributed species. It 

 extends to the Arctic Circle over the whole of northern 

 and central Europe; it invades Asia through the passes 

 of the Ural; it is established in mid- Atlantic upon the 

 Azores; and it is as much at home in Labrador as in 

 Lanarkshire. I have seen it covering broad tracts of 

 mountain in the south of Europe at a height of six 

 thousand feet; it descends to the limit of high tide on 

 the western coasts of Britain and Ireland, and it thrives 

 wherever it can get a footing and clear head-room at all 

 intermediate altitudes. To what does it owe the extra- 

 ordinary constitution, enabling it to endure such a wide 

 and varied range, unrivalled, in this respect, among 

 European flowering plants ? Chiefly, I imagine, because 

 of its peculiar leaf structure. The leaves are exceedingly 



