226 OCTANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Erica. 



In some species the ardhers bear at the base a pair of horns, 

 in others a double notched crest. The above description 

 of the capsule agrees with all our English, and numerous 

 exotic, European as well as Cape, species. There are 

 some indeed whose partitions are formed from the mar- 

 gins of the valves. The most able botanists however 

 scruple to divide so natural a genus, nor is any one, as 

 yet, furnished with sufficient materials to attempt it. 



The stem is shrubby. Leaves evergreen, opposite, or 

 whorled, mostly linear. Fl. numerous and beautiful, on 

 simple bracteated stalks. Cor. of various shapes, sizes 

 and colours ; never blue. No species is wild in America. 



1. E. Tetralix. Cross-leaved Heath. 



Anthers horned. Style nearly concealed. Corolla ovate. 

 Leaves fringed, four in a whorl. Flowers in round tufts. 



E.Tetralix. Linfi. Sp. PL 502. fVilld. v. 2. 368. Fl. Br. 4]8. Engl. 

 Bot.v. 15. t. 1014. Curt. Lond.fasc. I. t. 21. Hook. Scot. l\9. 

 Fl.Dan. t.8l. 



E. brabantica, folio coridis hirsuto quaterno. Rail Syn. 47 \. 



E. ex rubro nigricans scoparia. Bauh. Pin, 486. 



E. decima tertia. Clus. Hist, v, 1 . 46. 



E. tertia. Dalech. Hist. 186./. ; but not of DodoncEus. 



E. anglicana parva^ capitulis hirsutis. Bauh. Hist. v,\. p. 2. 358./. 



On heathy boggy ground. 



Shrub. July, August. 



Roots creeping. Stems erect, from 4 to 6 or 8 inches high, leafy, 

 furrowed, hairy and downy, branched at the bottom. Leaves 

 crowded, spreading, 4 in a whorl, stalked, ovate, or lanceolate, 

 revolute, downy, and bristly with glandular hairs ; glaucous be- 

 neath. Fl. remarkable for their delicate wax-like hue, of every 

 shade of rose-colour, sometimes snow-white, on hairy cottony 

 stalks, collected into a dense, round, terminal, capitate cluster, 

 all elegantly pendulous towards one side. Cal. oblong, downy 

 and hairy, with 2 bracteas at the base. Cor. oblong, a little 

 downy near the mouth. Stigma slightly protruding. A7ith. con- 

 cealed, each with a pair of simple bristles, or horns, at the base. 

 Valves of the capsule hairy, concave, with a fixed partition from 

 the centre of each. 



It is wonderful that this most elegant, and not uncommon, plant 

 is scarcely delineated at all by the old authors j nor by any of 

 them correctly. 



2. E. cinerea. Fine-leaved Heath. 



Anthers crested. Style a little prominent. Stigma capitate. 

 Corolla ovate. Leaves three in a whorl. 



