564 ERICA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



ever be shown in small gardens, but why 

 should it not be in large ones ? We need 

 not even have a garden to cultivate 

 Heaths in a picturesque way, as almost 

 any rough open ground will do, and some 

 kinds will do among bushes and in woody 

 places. The larger Heaths, where grown, 

 should be massed in visible groups, and 

 the dwarf ones seen in masses also, and 

 not treated as mere " specks " on rockeries. 

 They are all of easy culture and all the 

 dwarf kind of easy increase by pulling in 

 pieces and replanting at once any time 

 from October to April. 



E. ARBOREA {Tree Heath). — A tall and 

 graceful shrub of Southern Europe and N. 

 Africa ; white flowered, and covering vast 

 areas in the upland woods of Oak or other 

 trees, attaining a height of 12 feet or 

 more in N. Africa, and in the Canaries 

 becoming a tree. This Heath is tender in 

 Britain generally, but may be grown in 

 southern and warm districts and on warm 

 soil in sheltered valleys near the sea with its 

 friendly warmth. 



E. AUSTRALIS {Southern Heath).— A pretty 

 bush Heath of the sandy hills and wastes of 

 Spain and Portugal, 2 feet to 3 feet high, 

 flowering in spring in Britain. The flowers 

 are rosy purple and fragrant. It deserves a 

 place in heathy soils. 



E. CARNEA {Alpine Forest Heath). — A 

 jewel among mountain Heaths and hardy as 

 the rock Lichen. On many ranges of Central 

 Europe at rest in the snow in winter, in our 

 mild winters it flowers in January in the south, 

 and in all districts is in bloom in the dawn 

 of spring — deep rosy flowers, carpeting the 

 ground, the leaves and all good in colour. 

 There are one or two varieties, one white. 

 This Heath is not averse to loamy soils, and 

 often thrives on them as well as on peat soil. 

 Syn., E. herbacea. 



E. CINEREA {Scotch Heath). — A dwarf and 

 pretty Heath common in many parts of Britain, 

 and particularly Scotland, very easily grown, 

 and having good varieties. Among them are 

 alba, bicolor, coccinea, pallida, piirptirea, and 

 rosea ; flowering in summer, and very pretty 

 for rock-gardens. 



E. CILIARIS {Dorset Heath). — A lovely 

 plant, and as pretty as any Heath of 

 Europe. A native of Western France and 

 Spain in heaths and sandy woods it also 

 comes into Southern England, and is hardy 

 further north than the districts it inhabits 

 naturally. The flowers are of a purple- 

 crimson, and fade away into a pretty brown. 

 It is excellent in every way, thriving in loamy 

 as well as in peaty soils, and flowering in 

 summer and into late autumn. 



E. HVURIUA {Hybrid Heath). — A cross 

 between E. carnea and E. viediterranea. It 

 is a good plant and flowers through the 

 winter and far into the spring, thriving in 

 loamy soil almost as well as in peat, and 

 is excellent as a groundwork Ijelow Azaleas. 



E. HIBERNICA {L-ish Heath). — Mr. Boswell 

 Syme, whose knowledge of British plants was 

 profound, considered this Irish plant distinct 

 from the Mediterranean Heath, "the flower- 

 ing not taking place in the Irish plant till three 

 or four months after the Mediterranean Heath ;" 

 a fine shrub in Mayo and Galway, growing 

 from 2 to 5 feet high. 



E. LUsrrANiCA {Portupiese Heath). — This 

 is for Britain the most precious of the taller 

 Heaths, 2 to 4 feet high, and, hardier than 

 the Tree Heath, it may be grown over a larger 



area. Even in a cool district I have had it 

 in a loamy soil ten years, and almost every 

 year it bears lovely wreaths of flowers in mid- 

 winter, white flowers with a little touch of pink, 

 in fine long Foxbrush-like shoots. This 

 would probably perish in the north, but is a 

 shrub of rare beauty for sea coast and mild 

 districts. Syn., E. codonodes. 



E. MEDiTERRANEA {Mediterranean Heath). 

 — A bushy kind, 3 to 5 feet high, best in peat, 

 and flowering prettily in spring. Although 

 a native of Southern Europe, it is hardier in 

 our country than the Tree Heaths of Southern 

 Europe. Of this species there are several 

 varieties. 



E. STRICTA {Corsican Heath).— A wiry- 



