spreading.

[Illustration: HEATH AND HEATHER.]

The flowers of the Heather are rather larger, deep crimson in colour,
and grow in clusters. On the flower stems grow very small narrow leaves;
there are generally three of them together and they do not grow so
thickly as the leaves of Heath. Among these leaves are some that are
made up of several leaflets.

Gorse, Heather, and Heath are spreading plants, and, if they were
allowed to grow unchecked, they would soon smother and destroy the
turf. Every few years therefore the Chase is burnt. In winter or spring
both Gorse and Heath burn easily, the fire spreading fast from one patch
to another. The smoke of the burning Chase may then be seen from many
miles away.

When the fire has burnt out, the Chase looks very black and dismal. But
the roots and underground stems of both the Heather and the Gorse are
still alive. Fresh shoots will grow, and soon the Gorse will be golden
in the spring, the Heather purple in the summer, as they were before.




CHAPTER XII

IN THE LANES