44 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Var. 0, incana. 



Stem woolly-pubescent. Leaves clothed with white hairs. 



In heaths. Very common, and generally distributed. Var. 

 rather scarce, but widely distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub. Late Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Stems woody, 9 inches to 2 feet high, much branched ; the 

 flowering-branches elongate, erect ; the barren branches from the 

 axils of the leaves of the flowering-shoots very short. Leaves oppo- 

 site, oblong-strapshaped, spurred at the base, flat above, semicylin- 

 drical and bluntly keeled beneath, distant and with barren shoots 

 in their axils on the main branches, densely imbricated and 4-farious 

 on the short barren branches. Flowers very shortly stalked, droop- 

 ing, axillary, arranged in dense sub-unilateral racemes towards the 

 extremity of the main branches. Peduncles much shorter than the 

 calyx, with short herbaceous or red bracteoles at the apex ; the two 

 outer ones spurred at the base, the two inner simple ; all the four 

 embracing the sepals, and opposite to them, resembling an outer 

 calyx. Sepals nearly distinct to the base, lanceolate-oval, concave, 

 becoming more oval and incurved in fruit, purplish-rose or white, 

 of the consistence of parchment. Corolla about half as long as the 

 calyx, very deeply 4-cleft, with triangular ovate-obtuse segments. 

 Anthers included, affixed by the back ; cells separate for about 

 half-way down, and spurred at the base. Styles lightly exserted 

 beyond the corolla, but scarcely passing the extremities of the 

 sepals. Capsule globular, generally downy, the sepals remaining 

 nearly unchanged over it until the following spring. Plant vary- 

 ing much in the amount of hairiness, in the common form green 

 and glabrous, except the stem, peduncles, and occasionally the mar- 

 gins of the leaves and bracts ; var. is hoary, from the abundance 

 of short white rather stiff hairs with which the whole of the herba- 

 ceous portions are clothed ; but every intermediate state between 

 these two forms occurs. 



Common Ling, the Heather. 



French, Bruycrc Commune. German, Gemeine Heide. 



This well-known plant is especially the plant of the Highlander, and growing, as 

 it does, in vast masses in its native districts, it would be strange if it had not been 

 utilized in some way. We find that it is not merely as the child of the mountain 

 f'astuesses, associated with his country in all its legends and poetry, and almost as 

 national an emblem as the bagpipe, that the Highlander values this little plant; to 

 him it is something more than a mere badge of clanship ; it furnishes him with much 

 that is valuable in his daily life. As a herbage' plant for cattle and sheep it is avail- 

 able when other supplies fail, and it is said by some French writers that the mutton of 



