THE HEATH. 
137 
those, however, which are so are mostly very abundant, 
especially in Scotland, which is, emphatically, the “land 
of brown heath; ” there it is to be seen covering large 
tracts of moorish waste land with its bright and fragrant 
blossoms, and, along with its elegant and hardy com¬ 
panion, the bell-flower or harebell, tufting every ruined 
battlement, and peeping between the crevices of every 
splintered rock. They are thus linked together by the 
bard who could best appreciate their simple charms: — 
“ Let Albyn bind her bonnet blue 
With heath and harebell dipt in dew.” 
This idea of choosing the heath as a sort of national 
emblem may have been suggested to the poet by the 
circumstance of different species being the badges of 
some of the clans; the Erica tetralix (which is depicted 
in the plate) being the device of the McDonalds, and 
the Erica cinerea, or fine-leaved heath, belonging to the 
clan M £ Alister. But whilst we delight, when wan¬ 
dering among the wild glens and moors of the High¬ 
lands, to see the 
-“ Gentle modest heather-bell 
Gladden its lonely birth-place : ” 
yet, viewing it as the accompaniment of barrenness and 
aridity, we cannot regret its absence from the laughing 
