80 
HARDY HEATHS. 
sheep is said to be produced in larger quan- 
tities. Heath is used, both in Scotland and 
Sweden, for thatching houses, for heating 
ovens, for making besoms, scrubbing-brushes, 
and baskets ; for weaving into fences, for 
covering underground drains, and for many 
rural purposes. The Highlanders not only 
form the walls of their houses, but they make 
their beds of it. The green tops and flowers 
of the plants, boiled in water, dye yellow ; and 
woollen cloth boiled in alum-water, and after- 
wards in a strong decoction of the tops, comes 
out of a fine orange colour. Sometimes lea- 
ther is tanned in a strong decoction of heath. 
Formerly, the young tops are said to have 
been used alone to brew a kind of ale ; and, in 
some of the western isles, it is said, they still 
brew ale with one part malt, and two parts of 
the young tops of heath, sometimes adding hops. 
The flowers of the heath abound in honey, 
and are much frequented by bees. The wood 
makes excellent charcoal. Medicinally, the 
shoots of the heath are considered to be 
diuretic and astringent, but they are not now 
used. 
The heaths form the type of one of the 
most extensive and the most beautiful of the 
natural orders, namely, Ericaceae, which, it has 
been remarked, " contains, perhaps, a greater 
number of really beautiful plants than all the 
other orders of flowering plants put together." 
This, it must be admitted, is strong language, 
but it seems to convey a correct idea of the su- 
perlative beauty of a vast majority of the plants 
of the order ; and it is only necessary to name 
the genera Erica, Rhododendron, Azalea, Kal- 
mia,* Andromeda, Arbutus, Pernettya, Gaul- 
theria, Clethra, Ledum, and Vaecinium, all 
containing many hardy species, and the greater 
part of them entirely composed of hardy plants 
■ — not to mention the many splendid tender 
exotics of the order — to show that the expres- 
sion is not altogether undeserved. 
The different kinds of hardy heaths are 
included in the three genera, Erica, G-ypso- 
callis, and Calluna, the species of which will 
now be noticed. 
ERICA. 
E. arborea, (the Tree-Heath,) is a tree- 
like shrub, with branching habit, and small, 
axiliary, racemose, white, bell-shaped flowers. 
It is hardy in favourable situations, and is 
only killed down to near the ground in severe 
winters. It grows from five to twelve, and 
even twenty feet high, according to the situa- 
tion, though it rarely reaches the latter size 
in the open air in this country. It inhabits 
the south of Europe, and flowers from Fe- 
bruary to May. There are five varieties : — 
stylosa, with a long style; squarrosa, with 
squarrose leaves; scojmria, with small green 
flowers ; minima, a smaller growing plant ; 
and poli/trichifolia. The species is also called 
E. scoparia, E. triflora, and E. procera. 
E. australh, (the southern Heath,) is a 
handsome pyramidal shrub, growing from three 
to six feet high, with very numerous, small, 
purplish-red, bell-shaped flowers. It is one 
of the most ornamental of the tree-like heaths, 
producing a profusion of flowers from April 
to August. Native of Spain and Portugal. 
It is also called E. pistillaris. 
E. ciliaris, (the ciliate-leaved Heath,) is one 
of the most beautiful of British plants. It is 
rare in England, being found only in Cornwall; 
and is also met with in Portugal. It is always 
found in boggy places, and not in dry ground. 
It forms a low spreading shrub, from a foot 
to a foot and a half high ; the leaves are 
ciliated, that is, fringed with small hairs ; the 
flowers are in sub-racemose terminal heads, 
ovate, and pale red, and of considerable size. 
It blooms from July to September ; and is 
certainly one of the most beautiful of the hardy 
heaths. 
E. cinerea, (the grey Heath,) is a low- 
growing plant, clothing many thousand acres 
of waste land in different parts of the country. 
It has oval pitcher- shaped flowers, in a sort 
of spike, of a rich deep purple. The leaves 
usually grow three in a whorl ; and the plant 
varies from six inches to a foot in height. It 
is the badge of the clan Macalister. There 
are several varieties : — atropurpurea, a dwarf 
grower, with deep purple flowers; alba, flowers 
white ; pallida, pale purple ; carnescens, flesh- 
coloured; prolifera, with proliferous flowers, or 
flowers turned into branches ; and stricta, an 
upright grower. They flower from June to 
September. It is also called E. mutabilis, 
E. humilis, and E. tenuifolia, by various 
authors. 
E. codonodes, (the bell-shaped flowered 
Heath,) is one of the tree-like species; in 
general appearance, similar to E. arborea, but 
differing in the form of the flowers, which is 
more truly bell-shaped than in arborea. It 
forms a bush from ten to twelve feet high, 
blossoming from February to May, "disre- 
garding both frost and snow, being often 
covered with flowers from top to bottom, and 
forming a most beautiful object." The flowers 
are small, and pale rose-coloured. Nothing 
seems to be known of its history. 
E. sicula, (the Sicilian Heath,) is a shrub 
from two to three feet high, with erect, ovate, 
downy, red flowers, in terminal umbel-like 
groups. It flowers in May. Native of Sicily. 
It requires a slight degree of protection. 
E. stricta, (the upright Heath,) is a very 
neat growing bush, from two to three feet 
high, with a rigid branching stem, often form- 
ing a fastigiate bush, in some instances, though 
