CLASS Vril. ORDER I.] ERICA. 559 



Of this species it is said that the Picts made a good and wholesorae 

 liquor ; but the mode of its preparation appears now to be lost, which 

 is accounted for by Boethius from the tradition that the mode of 

 preparing such a delightful beverage was not communicated by them 

 to any but their own sect ; and, as they were exterminated, the art was 

 lost with them. 



" Though unobtrusive all thy beauties shine, 

 Yet boast thou rival of the purple vine ! 

 For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh 

 In pearly cups which monarchs loved to quaff; 

 And frequent woke the vlfild inspired lay, 

 On Teviot's hills, beneath the Pictish sway." 



Leyden, 



In some parts of the isles of Scotland, it is said the tender tops 

 are still used with malt and hops in brewing ale ; it is also used 

 together with Culluna vulgaris for a variety of domestic and econo- 

 mical purposes ; Hooker says it is the badge of the Clan Macalister. 



** Anthers without aivns at the base, and -protruding beyond the 



corolla. 



3. E. 3Iediterra'nea, Linn. Mediterranean Heath. Anthers 

 without awns, and as well as the style exserted; corolla narrow, 

 urceolate; bracteas about the middle of the peduncle; calyx coloured; 

 flowers axillary ; leaves four in a whorl. 



Botanical Maga. t. 471. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 180. — 

 Lindley, Synopsis, p. 327, 



/3. (Fig. 637.) Flowering branches and style shorter. 



Hooker in English Botany, Supp. t. 2774. 



Root woody, fibrous. Stem erect, from one to two feet high, much 

 branched, rigid, and more or less waved, the younger branches pale 

 grey coloured, the older dark brown. Leaves numerous, mostly dis- 

 posed in irregular whorls of four, the upper ones erect, the lower 

 spreading, linear, somewhat fleshy, about half an inch long, smooth, a 

 dark green, flat on the upper side, rounded beneath, with a central 

 depressed mid-rib, each on a short petiole. Floivers numerous from 

 the axis of the upper leaves, erect, and drooping, each on a slender 

 pink pedicle bearing about the middle a whorl of mostly three ovate 

 lanceolote small bracteas, with hairy margins. Calyx of five close 

 pressed lanceolate thin segments, nearly half as long as the corolla, 

 smooth, pale pink. Corolla pale pink, of a narrow cylindrical urn- 

 shape, with a limb of four short blunt segments. Stamens as long as 

 the corolla, with slender filamenis, dilated upwards into the anthers, 

 which are of a dark pinkish brown colour, linear, bursting laterally 

 from the apex, and without any appendages. Style slender, longer 

 than the stamens, with an obtuse stigma. 



Habitat. — Discovered in 1830 in boggy ground op Urrisbeg Moun- 

 tain, Cunnamara, Ireland, covering a space of at least two acres. — 

 J. T. Mackay, Esq. 



Shrub; flowering in April. 



