528 



THE HEATH FAMILY. 



It varies, either quite glabrous or more or less downy, or even hairy. 

 It is now generally considered as a distinct genus under the name of 

 Calluna. 



2. Scotch Heath. Erica cinerea, Linn. (Fig. 630.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1015. Scotch Heather.) 



Usually more bushy, and rather taller 

 than the common H., the leaves linear, 

 finer and more pointed than in any of 

 our other Heaths, and usually 3 in a 

 whorl, with clusters of small leaves in 

 their axils. Flowers numerous, of a red- 

 dish purple, in very showy, dense termi- 

 nal racemes. Sepals small and narrow. 

 Corolla ovoid, about 3 lines long, straight 

 at the mouth, with 4 very small lobes 

 or teeth. Stamens enclosed in the 

 corolla, with small, toothed appendages 

 at the insertion of the anther on the 

 filament. 



Common in western Europe, from 

 southern Spain to Norway. Ranges 

 over nearly the whole of Britain, cover- 

 ing immense tracts of country on the 

 Scotch, Irish, Welsh, and some of the 

 western English moors. Fl. summer and autumn. 



Fig. 630. 



3. Cross-leaved Heath. Erica Tetralix, Linn. (Fig. 631.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1014.) 



Generally a lower plant than the Scotch H., bushy at the base, with 

 rather short, erect flowering branches ; the leaves in fours, shorter and 

 less pointed than in that species, and ciliate with short stiff hairs, 

 besides a short, whitish down, which often clothes the branches and 

 upper leaves. Flowers about the size of those of the Scotch H, but 

 more pink in colour, and forming little terminal clusters or close 

 umbels. Appendages to the anthers entire, awn-like, and often nearly 

 as long as the anthers themselves. 



A strictly western species in southern Europe, but in northern Eu- 

 rope extends over Sweden and northern Germany to Courland and 

 Livonia, but never so gregarious as the Scotch H. Ranges all over 

 Britain, and very common in the west. FL summer, rather late. A 



