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larger and finer in appearance than those grown in our own country, but not so full of flavour.

The other species of Vaccinium are the Bog Whortleberry, V. Uliginosum, and the Red Wortleberry or Cowberry, V. Vitis-idea.

HEATH.

ERICA TETRALIX.

THIS is the most widely distributed and best known of all our native heaths. The leaves are four in a whorl, lanceolate and linear, ciliate, downy above and on the midrib beneath. The stem is bushy at the base, with rather short, erect, flowering branches. The flowers are rose-coloured, forming little clusters or close umbels at the end of the stalks. It is commonly found in the West of Europe, and in Britain is most plentiful in the western counties. I have, however, constantly found it in Suffolk, the Isle of Wight, and other parts, often growing with the heather or Calluna Vulgaris, from which it is well to distinguish it. The larger and more bell-like blossoms of the Erica, and its downy appearance, are the evident marks by which we may recognize it. These heath flowers were adopted as the badges of the Highland clans; and although this heath is not especially a Scotch plant, the Erica Tetralix was borne by the Macdonalds, the

Erica Cinerea by the Macalisters, and the Calluna Vulgaris by the Macdonnells. All these plants grow together on the moors and fells in the North of England and Scotland, and give a peculiar aspect to the landscape, shedding as it were a purple hue over the distant mountains, and forming a characteristic feature of these northern districts.

There are six species of Erica in Great Britain.

HEATHER.

CALLUNA VULGARIS.

THE Heather grows, as I have said, in common with the heaths, and is often mistaken for them. Its smaller more purple blossoms, placed all along the stems in little bunches, will serve to distinguish it. Sometimes the flowers are white, but this is rare. It is especially the plant of the Highlander, and is associated so strongly with his country in all its legends and poetry, that it appears almost as exclusively the child of the mountain fastnesses as the national music of the bagpipe. To the Highlander this plant is something more than a mere badge of clanship; it furnishes him with much that is valuable in everyday life. The heather branches, freshly gathered and arranged so that the elastic tips of the shoots form a level surface,

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