a low shrub (erica, / calluna, vulgaris), with minute evergreen leaves, and handsome clusters of pink flowers. it is used in great britain for brooms, thatch, beds for the poor, and for heating ovens. it is also called heather, and ling.-also, any species of the genus erica, of which several are european, and many more are south african, some of great beauty. see illust. of heather.-a place overgrown with heath; any cheerless tract of country overgrown with shrubs or coarse herbage.