The Gross-Leaved Heath 



only on the western part of Europe (though they 

 have run round the coast of the Mediterranean) and 

 South West Africa. They haye never travelled to 

 the continents of Asia and America, except when 

 directly taken by man. In Australia they are also 

 unknown as indigenous. 



In Great Britain only five out of these four 

 hundred can claim this cotmtry as a native home, 

 and of these, three keep strictly to very hmited 

 areas in Cornwall and Ireland. The remaining two, 

 namely, the Scotch Heath {Erica cinerea) and the 

 Cross-leaved Heath {Erica tetralix), the subject of 

 our picture, alone range over Britain. (The common 

 heather or ling, whose tiny flowers are arranged in 

 long spikes, was once included among the Heaths, 

 but now is considered a separate genus.) The 

 Scotch heath and the Cross -leaved Heath have 

 flowers that are alike in structure, though in the 

 first-named they are a reddish-purple and are 

 arranged in long handsome spikes ; in the second- 

 named they are pinker, somewhat larger, and gathered 



78 19,3 



