As a garden plant the Heath has been strangely neglected. Many of the species are completely hardy, and will make pretty evergreen bushes of from 2ft. to 4ft. high, but they are better if kept close-grown by constant clipping. The species best suited for this treatment are E. Mediterranea, E. arborea, and E. codonoides. Of the more humble-growing species, E. vagans (the Cornish Heath) will grow easily in most gardens, though in its native habitat it is confined to the serpentine formation; nor must we omit E. herbacea, which also will grow anywhere, and, if clipped yearly after flowering, will make a most beautiful border to any flower-bed; or it may be used more extensively, as it is at Doddington Park, in Gloucestershire (Sir Gerald Codrington's), where there is a large space in front of the house, several yards square, entirely filled with E. herbacea. When this is in flower (and it is so for nearly two months, or sometimes more) the effect, as seen from above, is of the richest Turkey carpet, but of such a colour and harmony as no Turkey carpet ever attained. Several of the South-European Heaths were cultivated in England in Shakespeare's time. HEBENON OR HEBONA.[118:1] _Ghost._ Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed Hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ear did pour The leperous distilment; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigour it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine; And a most instant tetter bark'd about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 5 (61). Before and in the time of Shakespeare other writers had spoken of the narcotic and poisonous effects of Heben, Hebenon, or Hebona. Gower says-- "Ful of delite, Slepe hath his hous, and of his couche, Within his chambre if I shall touche, Of Hebenus that slepy tre The bordes all aboute be." _Conf. Aman._, lib. quart. (ii. 103, Paulli). Spenser says-- "Faire Venus sonne, . . . Lay now thy deadly Heben bow apart." _F. Q._, introd., st. 3. "There (in Mammon's garden) Cypresse grew in greatest store, And trees of bitter gall and Heben sad." _F. Q._, book ii, c. viij, st. 17. And he speaks of a "speare of Heben wood," and "a Heben launce." Marlowe, a contemporary and friend of Shakespeare, makes Barabas curse his daughter with-- "In few the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, The juice of Hebon, and Cocytus breath, And all the poison of the Stygian pool." _Jew of Malta_, act iii, st. 4.