THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



223 



feet, but on the continent it attains an 

 altitude of 9,000 feet. 



The name Ericoy is Latinized from 

 the Greek ericeo, I break, because it 

 anciently had a repute for eflicacy in 

 breaking or dissolving stones in the 

 bladder, also as a remedy for snake- 

 bites ; but its virtues seem to have 

 departed or been forgotten, as the 

 herbalists of later days do not even 

 deign to mention it in their lists of 

 curatives. The specific name Tetralix 

 apphes to the leaves being arranged in 

 fours on the stem, hence it is called 

 the four-leaved heath. The other spe- 

 cific name of cinerea refers to the ashy 

 grey hue of the whole plant. It is 

 distinguished as the fine-leaved heath. 

 The name Callmia is from the Greek 

 callunOf I cleanse, ornament, or adorn, 

 and has been appropriately applied to 

 this plant which is so commonly used 

 for making besoms, thus sweeping or 

 cleansing whilst, at the same time, 

 beautifying and embelHshing our moor- 

 lands with its profusion of rosy pink 

 blossoms. 



" The tiny heath-flowers now begin to blow ; 

 The russet moor assumes a richer glow ; 

 The powdery bells, that glance in purple 

 bloom, 



Fling from their scented cups a sweet per- 

 fume ; 



While from their cells, still moist with morn- 

 ing dew, 



The wandering wild-bee sips the honied glue; 



In wider circle wakes the liquid hum, 



And far remote the mingled murmurs come." 



The specific name vulgaris refers to its 



exceeding abundance. It is the only 

 species of the genus, and the older 

 botanists did not separate it from erica. 

 The popular name of heath, or heather, 

 is an old Anglo-Saxon word Jioetli, 

 which primarily meant the country in 

 which the heath-plant grows — a waste 

 or open moor. Erom the same San- 

 scrit root Jcshi, dwell, may be traced 

 the words signifying a field, land, 

 ground, and our much-loved Enghsh 

 word home, Scottish hame, old Norse 

 heimi. In ancient times when the 

 country was largely covered with forest, 

 the open clearings on which the heather 

 grew would be selected by the inhabi- 

 tants to erect their dwellings, and the 

 name thus given to the place is per- 

 petuated to us as a field, a clearing—- 

 a heath, an open space — a homestead, 

 residence. The term Ling is the Dan- 

 ish and Norse name for the plant which 

 grew upon the hede or heath, with 

 which it is often combined, thus : — 

 lynghede — ericetum — a heath-land, and 

 conversely, hedelyngy the heath-plant. 

 The word heathen — now a reproachful 

 term, restricted to an unbeliever in 

 Christianity — originally meant a dwel- 

 ler on the heath, an inhabitant of the 

 open waste, barren moorlands, doubt- 

 less, then as now, superciliously looked 

 down upon by the denizen of the 

 crowded city. In Aberdeenshire the 

 huge, hard, intractable, whinstone 

 boulders, so troublesome in the recla- 

 mation of the moorlands, are known 



