Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-01-03
Then when the glcsming comes.
Low in tie heather broom-.
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In prose no one has emphasized its
cheerful appearance and fitness TO the
localities IL chooses better than Mr.. Rus
kin, and certainly no one ever drew it
with more exact delineation of every
curve and grace. When roaming over
a highland eorrie, however, or marking
the sunlight fall on the granite blocks
of Dartmoor, all but swallowed, ss they
are in Summer, by the purple ocean of
heather that surges in upon their DESC
lation, the traveller is apt TO forget that
there are more than one species Of
heather in the kingdom. There are
seven Tor, omitting Cdllund, six even In
England, while the whole family boasts
some four hundred species. TO say moth
ing OF the innumerable hybrids and va
rieties which our gardens produce.
Every one knows the common ling or
heather, (C0llund,) which is the most
widely distributed of the family, rang
ing, as it does, from Labrador TO the
Azores, and spreading all along the
II tpeh~t VI bhC AZ
lantic- WASHED side of Africa, which is
the original home of the race. The
Scotch heather proper Erica cinersd) Is
somewhat thicker and taller than this
last, with reddish-purple flowers which
delight bees, while Its tender shoots are
dear TO the grouse and blackjack. The
cross-leaved heath e. tetruiir) once seen
il never forgotten. Fairies might have
modelled it in wax, as rising four or five
inches from the ground, it hangs its
delieately-tinted, rose-flushed flowers
over some boggy spot where the cotton
grass flutters In the wind and the plo-
yer whistles against the bleating snipe,
hence known in Scotland as the ''heath-
er- bleat." Whoever has penetrated 10
the angry coast of the Lizard, either to
see its curious churches or to gather its
characteristics plants, must have recog-
nized the Cornish heath (E. rdgans) ae
soon as he set foot upon the magnetism
limestone, while the ciliated heath oc-
ours In isolated spots in the Cornish
peninsula, and Mackay's and the Medi-
terranean heath are only to be found in
the south western districts of Ireland,
being In truth outliers from the flora of
the Spanish Peninsula on the Continent.
All these heaths are fond of lonely,
wind-smitten localities, tenderly fiing-
ing their red and purple jewels over ma
ture's desOlatiOns, and as the long Sum-
mer days die out, rusting their sere and
withered flowers (which remain on the
plant even dead, and form the chief
characteristic of the family in bota-
nist's eyes) among snow and wet, de-
termined to do their best to cheer the
waste places of the earth. The Autum-
nal holiday-maker never fails to greet
the heath as the symbol of all that il
free and pleasursble in outdoor life,
while to the inmates of the Scotch shiel-
ing heather stands in much the same re-
lation for its economic uses as does the
bamboo to the Gond or Malay. Even
the gypsy ana the tramp have reason To
bless heather, as it helps them to live
lihood by making brOoms, If they only
can obtain, or take, right Of common
where 1t grows. And to many noun
tain child the purple hillside Is the only
flower garden he knows But what a