ERICACEAE. 45 



sheep fed on such pasturos is of a peculiarly rich flavour, and that the wool is produced 

 in very large quantities. Heather, or Ling, is used for thatching houses, for heating 

 ovens, for making besoms, scrubbing-brushes, and baskets, for weaving into fences, for 

 covering underground drains, and many other rural purposes. In the Western High- 

 lands it is twisted into ropes, and the walls of the cabins of that bleak coast are formed 

 with black earth and alternate layers of heath. Beds are also made of it, and in 

 Pennant's time the inhabitants of the Western Isles dyed their yarn yellow by boiling 

 it in water with the green tops and flowers of this plant. In some places leather is 

 tanned in a strong decoction of heath. Bees are particularly fond of the blossoms, 

 which give a peculiar flavour and a reddish tinge to the honey. Perhaps the most 

 curious use to which the heather has been put is in the making of beer. A tradition 

 seems very prevalent through the North of England, Scotland, and Ireland, that the 

 former inhabitants of the country possessed the power, now lost, of brewing beer from 

 heather : these former inhabitants are variously stated to have been the Pvomans, 

 Picts, and Danes ; and it is a common belief that the last of the Danes was put to 

 death for refusing to divulge the secret of the manufacture of heather beer. A 

 correspondent of Notes and Queries says : " Shallow receptacles of broken stone, partially 

 calcined, are occasionally found in secluded mountain districts, and these are believed 

 to be the ancient brewing- vats — ' Hibernico Tualacta na Fenine,' viz. the cooking- 

 hearths of the Fenians." The herb used for giving a bitter flavour to the brew seems 

 to have been the Burnet, Geum urbanum. This plant was commonly used in recent 

 times for flavouring beer before the introduction of hops ; and more than one writer 

 on the subject of " heather beer" says that in the island of Hay ale is frequently made 

 by brewing one part of malt and two parts of the young tops of heather. Medicinally, 

 the shoots of the heather are considered to be diuretic and astringent ; and in Pliny's 

 time a decoction of the leaves was considered a remedy for the bites of serpents. 

 " The tender tops and flouers," saith Dioscorides, " are good to be laid upon the bitings 

 and stings of any venomous beast ; of these flouers the bees do gather bad honey." In 

 cultivation, the Calluna is very pretty on rock-work, and in mossy or sandy soils 

 makes a very suitable and attractive gardeu-edging instead of box. It endures 

 clipping well, and is less liable to harbour slugs and snails than box. The Heather has 

 been a favourite subject for many a British poet ; from Burns, whose 



" Moorcock springs 

 On whirring wings 

 Amid the blooming heather, ' 

 to Mary Howitt, who years ago pictured 



" Those wastes of heath, 



Stretching for miles to lure the bee ; 



Where the wild bird, on pinions strong, 



Wheels round, and pours his piping song, 



And timid creatures wander free." 



Accustomed as we are in the Southern districts of the country to see the heather 

 plant only as a low shrub, a foot or two in height, we are surprised to read of 



" Heather black, that waved so high, 

 It held the copse in rivalry." 

 Yet so it is ; and in certain wild and peaty districts it may be found quite tall enough 

 to justify this description. 



