28 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



character to its healing powers, and so far from its being a 

 fragile plant, this and another species are largely made 

 into besoms, a service to which they would certainly not be 

 put if they strewed with their fragments the rooms they 

 were supposed to cleanse. The specific name ciuerea is 

 Latin in its origin, and refers to the ashy grey of the stems. 

 The heather grows rather bushy, as it branches a good 

 deal, the clumps being about eighteen inches high. The 

 leaves are more pointed than in any of our other heaths ; 

 ordinarily three large ones and several smaller ones in their 

 axils spring from one point in the stem, and make a series 

 of rings at short intervals down it. The flowers spring in 

 clusters one above the other, these floral rings being more 

 or ' less dense, according to the specimen : in some an 

 evident interval of plain stalk may be seen, while in others 

 the clusters are closely set together, and form a con- 

 tinuous mass of colour. The flowers hang downward, and 

 are of a colour that may be either described as purple with 

 a good deal of crimson in it, or crimson with a dash of 

 purple in it. The sepals are small and narrow, but are, 

 nevertheless, from the pendulous habit of the blossoms, 

 very conspicuous. The heather is a perennial. 



