ERICA, 
light, a little shade when very hot, with 
air in the middle of the day, and syring- 
ing when the air is taken off. They are 
quick growers and mostly gross feeders. 
By the beginning of July they will require 
another shift into pots proportionate to 
the strength and size the different kinds 
naturally acquire. Strong growers, like 
E. pulchellum and E. cinnabarinum, will 
bear a second shift into 8 or 10 inch pots ; 
weaker-growing sorts, such as E. aspersum 
and E. Andersonii, will do with 7 or 8 
inch pots. Attend to stopping, or most of 
the kinds, being erect-habited plants, will 
run up thin and insufficiently furnished. 
Encourage growth, and when the roots 
have got fairly hold of the soil after the 
last shift use manure-water. An ordinary 
pit where the plants can stand close to the 
glass will answer best for them during the 
summer months. The different species 
bloom at different periods through the 
late summer, autumn, and winter, but by 
stopping the shoots of the earliest flowerers 
later in the season they may be made 
to bloom later, when their flowers will 
generally be of most use. In September 
keep the atmosphere drier, cease shading, 
and give more air so as to harden up the 
growth. As the weather gets colder see 
that enough heat is given to prevent their 
getting chilled, which would seriously 
affect their flowering. A temperature of 
60° in the night, with an increase by day, 
will answer in the later months of the 
year, and so on for a time afterwards. 
When coming into bloom stand them close 
to the glass, which will give much more 
substance to the flowers, and cause them 
to last longer. When the blooming is 
over the plants may be headed back and 
kept slightly moving until March, when 
those that are to be retained for another 
season’s flowering should be turned out of 
their pots, have their balls reduced, and 
be re-potted in fresh soil, and at the same 
time cuttings of such as it is deemed ad- 
visable to increase should be struck. 
Small or medium-sized examples will in 
most cases be the most desirable. 
All the following are well worth 
growing :— 
E. Andersonu. <A levely kind, ground 
colour of flowers white, spotted with 
crimson; gives a good succession of bloom. 
India. 
E. aspersum. A very fine growing beau- 
tiful species, with white flowers spotted 
with purple, and a conspicuous purple spot 
on the lower lobe. Solomon Islands. 
E. cinnabarinum. <A tall-growing sort, 
that bears beautiful red flowers with a crim- 
son blotch on the bottom lobe. Martaban. 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
fr 
161 
E. laxiflorum. <A dwarf-habited sort, 
with compact foliage, and one which pro- 
duces a profusion of purple flowers. Fiji. 
E. pulchellum. A well-known, most 
useful winter-blooming kind, with lovely 
blue flowers produced from every bit of 
growth. A native of India. 
E. sanguinolentum. A handsome varie- 
gated-leaved species from Madagascar. 
E. strictum. <A large blue-flowered kind 
from Nepaul. 
Insects.—Eranthemums are not so much 
subject to insects as many plants that re- 
quire stove heat. Red spider and aphides 
sometimes make their appearance ; syringe 
freely with clean water for the former, 
and fumigate with some one of the tobacco 
preparations for the aphides. 
ERICA. 
Ericas belong to a very numerous family 
of evergreen greenhouse hardwooded plants, 
indigenous to the Cape of Good Hope, many 
of those that have been introduced no 
doubt being natural hybrids, from the 
seeds of which have been raised in this 
country numbers of the finest varieties in 
cultivation. In fact no plants have re- 
warded the patient manipulation of the 
hybridist better than these—patient, we 
repeat, for those who essay the raising of 
new varieties of Heaths need to exercise the 
virtue of patience to an extent not required 
by those who confine their operations to 
plants of a more precocious nature. The 
most successful raisers of Heaths assert, 
and no doubt correctly, that it takes ten 
years to raise a variety from seed and pro- 
pagate enough stock of it for letting out, 
as the greater portion, especially the hardest- 
wooded kinds, are slow growers, alike from 
the seed-pan or the cutting-pot. 
As decorative plants Heaths stand 
second to none in cultivation, although 
in their individual blossoms they cannot 
lay claim to the gorgeous character 
possessed by many plants ; but the simple 
beauty of their flowers and the profusion 
in which they are produced, added to 
their wax-like substance and charming 
tints — ranging from pearly white all 
through ‘the shades of blush and pale 
pink to red and the deepest crimson— 
render them unsurpassed. Their time of 
blooming varies in the different kinds so 
much that if even a limited selection is 
grown they can be had in flower almost 
the whole year round. Like many other 
fine families of plants they have at some 
times been more fashionable than at others, 
now and again giving place to things that 
need less attention and are of quicker 
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