4 6o 



ERICA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



ERICA. 



in light or warm soil, in positions with 

 a south aspect. It is poor on cold 

 soils, and will probably not grow well 

 north of London. It is fitted for 

 association with such grasses as 

 Arundo conspicua. Division of the 

 tufts in spring or autumn. E. strictus 

 is another species, but is not so good 

 as E. Ravennce. 



ERICA (Heath}. Beautiful shrubs, 

 of which the kinds that are wild in 

 Europe are very precious for gardens. 

 We should take more hints from our 

 own wild plants and bring the hardy 

 Heaths of Britain into the garden. 

 Why should we have such things as 

 the Alternanthera grown with care 

 .and cost in hothouses, and then put 

 out in summer to make our flower 

 gardens ridiculous, while neglecting 

 :such lovely hardy things as our own 

 Heaths and their many pretty varie- 

 ties ? But very many people do not 

 know how happy these Heaths are as 

 garden plants, and how well they mark 

 the seasons, and for the most part 

 at a time when people go into the 

 country. Where, as in many country 

 places, the Heaths abound, there is 

 less need to cultivate them, although 

 we cultivate nothing prettier. In 

 places large enough for bold Heath 

 gardens it would be well to plant 

 *hem, but a small place is often large 

 enough for a few beds of hardy Heaths. 

 Once established they need very little 

 attention. The varieties are often 

 quite as free as the wild sorts, and give 

 delightful colour in a Heath garden, 

 which need not by any means be a 

 pretentious affair, but quite simple ; 

 for heaths are best on the nearly level 

 ground. This group of plants has as 

 yet had but scant care, and if grown 

 at all, is grown in a poor way, and more 

 for its " botanical interest " than from 

 any just sense of its great beauty. 

 That can only be fairly judged of by 

 those who see Heaths on mountains 

 and moors, where they are among the 

 most beautiful of plants in effect in 

 broad masses. This can hardly ever 

 be shown in small gardens, but why 

 should it not be in large ones ? We 

 need not even have a garden to culti- 

 vate 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 kinds of easy increase by pulling 

 in pieces and re-planting 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 healthy 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. 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 farther 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. 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, purpurea, and rosea ; flowering 

 in summer, and very pretty for rock 

 gardens. 



E. HIBERNICA (Irish Heath). Mr Bos- 

 well Syme, whose knowledge of British 

 plants was profound, considered this Irish 

 plant distinct from the Mediterranean 

 Heath, the flowering 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. HYBRIDA (Hybrid Heath). A cross 

 between E. carnea and E. mediterranea. 

 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, 



