22 Heather and other Allied Plants. [Sess. 



as he ascended his heath-clad hills his patriotism waxed 

 stronger, and that Scottish independence was proclaimed from 

 the mountain -top long before Bannockburn. To many a 

 child of the Highlands the purple hillside is the only flower- 

 garden he knows, but what a garden, reaching from horizon 

 to horizon ! — the heather, the best of all bedding-plants, requir- 

 ing no care or expenditure, the greener after the worst of 

 storms or when the summer suns beat most fiercely upon it. 

 After the kings of the forest have been dwarfed to insignifi- 

 cance by the force of the elements, Calluna vulgaris then 

 becomes king in the upper zone. Since writing this para- 

 graph, however, I have visited a moor in the level carse, and 

 have had the experience of seeing a seedling crop of birch 

 getting up all over the moor, which will ultimately kill out 

 the heather. But the carse is probably more favourable to 

 the self-breeding of the birch than the hillside would be. I 

 am pleased to say I revisited this same heather moor recently 

 to refresh my memory, when I saw the blooming heather in 

 all its glory. I saw numerous varieties, from bright red to 

 nearly white, with both early flowering and late. All I can 

 say is, words fail me to describe this glorious sight. The 

 " natural flower-garden " is, without doubt, a reality. Where 

 would the bee-men be without the heather ? They could not 

 produce the genuine article. 



The local smuggler who produced a drop of the mountain- 

 dew by the side of the running stream was indebted to the 

 heather for providing him with a secluded spot. The hardy 

 Highlander acts on the sound principle of taking what he has 

 got, when he never wants, so he makes use of the heather in 

 thatching his cabin (even the wealthy use it for thatching 

 their summer-houses), he makes his bed of it, and with it 

 dyes his yarn to a rich golden yellow. In the Western Isles 

 they tanned their leather with it, and in the days of the 

 Picts they used the young tops of heather for brewing ale. 

 Even the gipsies have reason to bless the heather, as it helps 

 them to a livelihood in the making of brooms. The gentle 

 shepherd and his sheep monopolise a large share of the use- 

 fulness of the heather ; it is also the home of, and affords 

 shelter to, a considerable amount of other live-stock, which 



