THE HEATH FAMILY 
i5 
terminal clusters (racemose umbels) ; the stalks, sepals, and capsules are covered with minute 
gland-tipped hairs. The shrub is much branched, the branches rarely more than 6 inches long, 
and prostrate at the base ; and the leaves are evergreen, strap-shaped, blunt, green on both sides, 
the edges not rolled in, but fringed with minute glandular hairs. ( Bryanthus taxifolius. A. Gray ; 
Menziesia ccerulea. Swartz ; Phyllodoce ccerulea. Bab.) [Plate 4. 
Very rare. On moors on the Sow of Athol in Perthshire. June — July. Perennial. 
VI. DABCEC'IA. D. Don. — A genus (united with Bryanthus by some botanists) consisting of the 
one species : — 
St. Dabeoc’s Heath. (Dabcee'ia eantab'rica. Rendle and Britten.)— The flowers are 
very beautiful and larger than any of the preceding species in this order, being £ inch long, 
crimson or rarely white, narrowly urn-shaped, and drooping, 3-16 in a terminal, 1 -sided, loose 
cluster (raceme). Calyx deeply 4-lobed, free from and inserted below the seedcase (inferior) ; 
corolla narrowly urn-shaped, 4-lobed, not remaining with the fruit (deciduous), inserted below the 
seedcase (hypogynous ) ; stamens 8, the anthers opening at the top by pores, arrow-shaped at the 
base ; carpels 4, the stigma indistinctly 4-lobed ; capsule 4-celled, opening with 4 valves by the 
splitting of the partitions of the cell-walls (septicidally). This small shrub is from 9 inches to 2 
feet high, and is covered with gland-tipped hairs ; the leaves are evergreen, very narrow when 
young owing to the edges of the leaves being so much rolled in and becoming broader when old 
as the leaves unroll, the upper surface sparingly covered with gland-tipped hairs and the under 
surface densely felted with white wool. (. Menziesia polifolia. Sm ; Daboecia polifolia. Don. ; 
Boretta cantabrica. O. Kuntze .) 
Very rare. On boggy heaths in the west of Ireland in Connemara. August. Perennial. 
VII. LING, HEATHER. (CALLUNA. Salisb.) — A genus consisting of the one species : — 
Ling-, Heather. (Calluna VUlgAris. Hull.)— Flowers small, bell-shaped, lilac, usually 
drooping, with 4 green bracts at the base of each flower, in close erect terminal and axillary spike- 
like clusters (racemes). Calyx divided into 4 lobes, white or pink (petaloid), longer than the 
corolla, free from and inserted below the seedcase (inferior) ; corolla widely bell-shaped, cleft to 
the base into 4 lobes, remaining with the fruit (persistent), inserted below the seedcase (hypo- 
gynous) ; stamens 8, anthers opening by 2 pores at the top, and having 2 appendages at the base ; 
carpels 4 ; fruit a dry 4-celled capsule, with a few seeds in each cell, opening by 4 valves down the 
partitions of the cell-walls (septicidally). A heath-like little shrub with woody stems, from 9 
inches to 2 feet high, much branched, covered with pairs of small oval stalkless (sessile) leaves, 
which are densely packed on the short barren branches. ( Calluna Erica. D.C.) 
Heather is one of the mountain flowers which gives an especially pleasant flavour to honey, and 
sheep fed on hills where it is abundant are considered better than our pasture-fed cattle. In 
Scotland it is used for thatching houses, weaving into fences, making besoms, scrubbing-brushes, 
baskets, and many other things. The bell-shaped corollas remaining with the fruit, often until the 
next year’s flowers come out, give a soft colour to the mountain-side during the cold winter months. 
[Plate 5. 
Very common On heaths and mountains ; all over the British Isles. June — August. 
Perennial. 
VIII. HEATH. (ERI'CA. Linn.) — Flowers urn-shaped, bell-shaped, or tubular, usually 
drooping, with bracts at the base of each flower, in terminal and axillary spike-like clusters 
