HEATH. 277 



The diminutive size of these plants, their 

 extreme beauty and great variety, fit them 

 better for the green -house than most other 

 plants. Our collectors have now about four 

 hundred species of heath, of such various co- 

 lours and forms, as to defy the pen in descrip- 

 tion ; for some species present us with little 

 wax-like flowers, others with pendent pearls ; 

 some are garnished with coralline beads, 

 whilst others seem to mimic the golden 

 trumpet, or tempting berries, or porcelain of 

 bell or bottle shape ; some remind us of Lilli- 

 putian trees, bedecked with Turkish turbans 

 in miniature ; some have their slender spray 

 hung with globes like alabaster, or flowers of 

 the cowslip form : nor are their colours less 

 varied than their shape; whilst the foliage is 

 equally beautiful in its apparent imitation of 

 all the mountainous trees from the Scottish 

 fir to Lebanon's boasted cedar, through all 

 the tribe of pine, spruce, and larch, tamarisk, 

 juniper, arbor vitse, mournful cypress, and 

 funeral yew. Stages for these plants should 

 be made to imitate rocky mountains, and the 

 effect would be a living landscape in minia- 

 ture. A favourable spot should be selected 

 in the shrubbery, and planted with native 

 heaths, amongst which the exotic kinds could 

 be placed during the favourable season of the 



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