558 ERICA. [CLASS VIII. ORDER I. 



glandular bristles, as well as the two linear bracteas which accompany 

 them. Corolla ovate, smooth or downy, a beautiful rose colour, having 

 a waxy appearance, sometimes they are quite white, contracted at the 

 mouth, with a limb of four roundish reflexed teeth. Stamens inserted 

 into the receptacle, inclosed within the corolla, the filaments simple, 

 awl-shaped, the anthers of two cells, opening with a terminal pore, 

 and having from the base at the back two simple tapering awns, 

 nearly as long as the cells. Style simple, thread-shaped, as long as 

 the corolla, with an obtuse capitate stigma. Germen roundish, hairy. 

 CapsttZe roundish, oblong, hairy, with four furrows, four cells, four 

 valves, and many seeded. 



Habitat. — Heaths and moory ground; frequent. 



Shrub; flowering in July and August. 



This elegant little plant is one of the greatest ornaments to our 

 heaths and moors, and though common, is less frequent than the 

 following species, or Calluna vulgaris ; its gracefully drooping heads 

 of waxy looking flowers of a delicate rose colour, sometimes white, 

 hang nodding in the breeze, and aff"ord to the industrious bee a rich 

 reward for its labour, in the nectarious food sipped from its bosom. 

 It is, according to Hooker, the badge of the clan Macdonald. 



2. E. cine'rea, Linn. (Fig. 636.) Fine-leaved Heath. Anthers with 

 two serrated awns at the base, inclosed within the ovate corolla; 

 flowers in whorled racemes ; leaves short, linear, three in a whorl, 

 smooth. 



English Botany, t. 1015.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 226.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. ISO.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 174. 



Root v^oody, fibrous. Stem woody, much branched, brittle, erect, 

 often contorted, round, smooth below, the branches clothed with a 

 close pale woolliness. Leaves crowded in whorls of three, and from 

 the axis of each is a short leafy branch, nearly sessile, quite smooth, 

 short, linear, awl-shaped, with a furrow at the back. Inflorescence a 

 terminal raceme, of numerous whorled fioivers, on short round downy 

 recurved peduncles, bearing one, two, or three linear bractea near the 

 calyx^ which is formed of four linear smooth segments, somewhat 

 membranous at the base. Corolla rather small, ovate, of a purplish 

 red, sometimes quite white, smooth, the limb of four short erect or 

 spreading teeth. Stamens inclosed within the corolla, the filaments 

 smooth, slender, awl-shaped. Anthers dark purple, of two conical 

 cells opening at the apex, and from the base at the back are two 

 spreading awns, as long as the cells, with the margins more or less 

 serrated. Style simple, longer than the stamens, with the stigma 

 obtuse, and cleft into four notches. Capsule roundish, oblong, smooth, 

 marked with four furrows, four valved, four celled, and many seeded. 



Habitat. — Heaths and moors ; abundant. 



Shrub ; flowering from July to October. 



