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HEATHER
“The Bee is on the heather and the sun is on the Ben—
Ho, there! Bookworm, shut your musty tome!
Come, ramble by the river that is leaping down the glen,
Come, climb the purple upland where the wild deer roam.”
I think that is what we all would love to do on a fine sunny day in early autumn. Spring-time is beautiful with its greens and yellows, and so is summer with its medley of bright colouring—but autumn has a beauty all its own, when the heather lies for miles over moors and hills, spreading a purple-red carpet fit for the tread of a queen. And fit for the bed of a queen, too, for there is nothing so delightfully soft and springy to lie upon as heather. The tough wiry branches bend themselves for us and seem to form a layer of soft springs, more comfortable than the most expensive mattress we can buy. No wonder shepherds do not grumble if, for bed, they have but a heap of heather!
If heather plants grew singly, or just a few together as do shepherd’s purse, dandelions, or scabious, we should not notice them very much. “Quite a pretty little plant,” we might say, and pass it by.
But because of the way it grows, because of its “sociability”—its liking for being with others of its kind—no one can pass heather by unnoticed. When, before your eyes, stretch hundreds and thousands of heather plants, covering every hill and every valley you can see with a warm purple, you have to stop and gaze in wonder and delight. There seems no end to it. Far away, the purple on the distant hills mingles with a mauve mist, so that it almost seems as if the heather is dissolving itself.
I think when a bee pays its very first visit to heather-clad moorland, it must imagine it has arrived at a bee’s paradise, for there are so many flowers for it to taste, and the smell is so delicious. Perhaps you have tasted Heather-honey. If you have, I expect you will agree with me that it is the nicest honey there is—it has the sunshine and the wind in it.
Ling
You are sure to know the real heather. It has another name, ling. All the other plants which are like enough to heather for people to mistake them, and which often grow intermingled with it, are heaths. Both heaths and heather belong to the same family, Ericaceæ, but while there are many heaths, there is only one real heather. It has another name, which tells what it was once used for, and still is, in some places. This is Kalluno—Greek for “I cleanse”—and it was given that name because its strong, wiry branches were excellent for making into brooms to sweep and cleanse floors and hearths. A dye can also be obtained from the heather, so that it is quite a useful plant—but the best thing it gives us is its honey.
HEATHER
(Left) Heather or Ling.(Right) Cross-leaved Heath.
(Top) Stamen of Heather showing Horns.
Let us look at some heather and see what it is like. It has woody stems, and the queerest leaves, looking rather like miniature branches of a monkey-puzzle tree. The flowers, of a deep lilac colour, grow up the stem to a spike, and are thickly massed. White heather is sometimes to be found, and is said to be very lucky. You must try to find some, and then see if a piece of good luck comes to you.
You will have to use your eyes well to see a heather flower. It is so small that it is difficult to examine closely, unless you have a magnifying glass. Underneath the flower you will see four small bracts—then come four coloured sepals, not petals. It is the sepals that give the heather such a lovely colour!
But where are the petals, then? You can easily find them. Take a little heather flower between your finger and thumb, and pull off neatly each of the four sepals. What do you see inside? Another little bell, cleft in four—and this time it is the petals that form it—four tiny pinkish-mauve petals, not even big enough to hide the stamens.
Can you count how many stamens there are? You will find eight, and if your spike of heather is not too old, you will see a cloud of fine yellow dust fly out when you shake it. When the wind comes along on the hills, and sends the pollen flying here and there, it is helping the heather to make its seeds; for when the yellow dust from one plant alights on the sticky stigma of another plant, seeds begin to form, and that is just what the heather wants. If you hold your heather spike up to the light, you will see a little stigma jutting out from each bell.
The bees help too. They put their tongues into the flower to reach the honey at the bottom, and in so doing touch two little horns that stick out from the anthers (top part) of the stamens. This shakes out the pollen on to the bee’s head, and the next time it goes to a heather plant, it unconsciously rubs some of the pollen off its head on to the sticky stigma, and straightway the seeds can begin to form. So you see the heather is a lucky flower, for both wind and bees help it.
The seeds, when ripe, are in little capsules, each of which has four pockets, wherein the tiny seeds are safely stowed.
Roots and Leaves
The heather roots go very deep down into the soil. If you think what sort of place heather grows in, you will know why. It grows usually in dry, windswept places, and there is generally little moisture to be found near the surface of the soil; so the roots have to grow far down to find the moisture below. Even then, there is not very much to be found, so the heather has to be very careful of what it gets.
Its way of taking care of its water is to have very tough small leaves. Plants give off water through their leaves, and you can quite well see that, this being the case, the smaller and tougher the leaves, the less water can escape! Whenever you find a plant with leaves peculiar in some way or other, you may be sure it has a very good reason for having them that shape. And probably if you think hard enough, you can find out the reason yourself.
Do you know what some people do with the roots of heather? They take them and shake them absolutely free from dirt. Then they snip off the flowering branches to within two or three inches of the roots, turn the plant upside down, and put it in a little pot like that—with the root sticking up in the air! And what do you think it looks like? It looks just like a tiny bare tree, for the branching roots are exactly like the tapering branches of miniature trees. Then bits of green are glued here and there to look like leaves, and bright beads hung on to look like flowers! You can imagine what a dainty little “pretend tree” is the result.
Cousins of the Heather
Growing with the heather are many kinds of heath, which no doubt you have often found. There is the pretty Cross-leaved Heath, with its dainty, closely massed flowers, looking like a bundle of rose-coloured fairy balloons. Its leaves are placed crosswise. It is sometimes found with pure white flowers.
Then there is the Fine-leaved Heath, with leaves growing in threes. The flowers of this heath grow all up the stem, and are of a deeper colour than the Cross-leaved Heath.
The Heath family is spread very widely over the world, and can be found in North and South America, Asia, and South Africa. Some of the most beautiful kinds grow in this last country, and perhaps you have seen them in a florist’s shop.
Besides those I have mentioned, there are other heaths growing in different parts of our own country, and not found anywhere else. Those I have written of you can probably find on any heathy moorland, if you look.
Go and search for them on a fine sunny day. When you are tired, choose a place where the heather is very thick. Lie down on it on your back and look up at the blue sky. All around, you will hear the drowsy hum of bees and the sharp high notes of other insects. The smell of the heather will be wafted to you by the breeze that always blows across the heath. You will feel as if you never want to get up again, you will be so warm and comfortable and happy!
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER AND THINGS TO DO
(1)
Why does the heather have such small leaves?
(2)
Tell why the roots go so deep down into the soil.
(3)
What do you know about the flowers?
(4)
Draw a piece of heather from a sprig in front of you.
(5)
See if you can make a “pretend tree” at home to bring to school one day.
