THE HEATHS 213 



c. alba, cinerea, &c., may be used as edgings to beds 

 of heathy plants. I am indebted to Mr. Bean for 

 the following excellent notes about the Heaths, and 

 the reason this group has a chapter to itself is 

 to encourage a greater use of shrubs, strangely 

 neglected in English gardens. The beauty of Heath 

 in bloom appeals to poet and painter. Moorlands 

 surfaced with colour, hill upon hill of softened shades 

 fading away in the distance, are pleasant memories — 

 pictures beautiful enough, we should have thought, 

 to tempt the planter of the English garden to repro- 

 duce in a small way in the homelands. I hope this 

 chapter will do something to make the beautiful 

 wild Heaths and their varieties welcome in rough, 

 peaty grounds and banks, and the many other places 

 where they would be as happy as on their native 

 moors and hillsides. 



The Taller or Tree-like Heaths 



Erica arborea. — This is the most remarkable of all 

 the hardy Heaths ; it grows to quite a small tree. In 

 the Isle of Wight, and doubtless elsewhere, it has 

 been known to grow 30 feet high, with a trunk 39 

 inches in circumference. It is found wild in con- 

 siderable abundance along the Mediterranean coast 

 region between Genoa and Marseilles, the wood 

 being used in the manufacture of the so-called Briar 

 pipes. Briar being a corruption of the French word 

 Bruyere. All the Heaths flower with great freedom 

 but none more so than E. arborea and its near ally, 



