ERICA. 



in pun. Many of UMM particle* which form the straight 

 lino* do not exceed the 600th of an jueli in diameter. Brewnter aim 

 observed the remarkable fact that each particle ha* a regular axis of 

 double refraction. A very large quantity of ttaroh is found during 

 winter in the rhizome*, in whow cell* during the month of October 

 the particle* may be Men in active motion, pausing up one side ami 

 retreating by the other, much in the same way a* in Ckara. This 

 may alao be Men in E. JiumUilr. 



. Mafl-aii ha* a simple, or very slightly branched, very rough 

 tern, with 8-12 furrow*, the sheath clow, ultimately wholly black ; 

 teeth slender, persistent Thin plant occurs in the north of In-l.md, 

 and it named by Mr. Newman after iU discoverer, Mr. I. T. Mixckay, 

 author of the ' Flora Hibernica.' Sir Win. Hooker has referred this 

 plant to the donyalnm of Willdenow ; but Babingtou has adopted 

 Newman's species. 



rarieyaHim has a simple stem, or very slightly branched, very 

 rough, with 5-9 furrows, the sheaths slightly enlarged upwards, 

 green below, black above; the teeth obtuse, each tipped with a 

 deciduous bristle. The stem is about a foot high. It is found on 

 sands near the sea, or in wet places in mountain valleys in Great 

 Britain. 



. palmlre has the stem with 6-8 deep furrows, branched through- 

 out ; the sheaths loose, pale, with acute wedge-shaped teeth ti(>|'<! 

 with brown, and membranous at the edges. This plant i.s V.TV 

 generally distributed over Great Britain. This species is liable to 

 alter iU characters, and three tolerably permanent varieties have 

 been described. 



B. Jluriatile, Water Horse-Tail, has a sterile stem, nearly smooth, 

 with about 30 striae and branches ; branches rough, doubly angular, 

 simple ; the fertile stem simple, with numerous crowded large 

 deeply-toothed sheaths. Tim is the E. Telmateia of Ehrhart and 

 Newman's ' History of British Ferns." Its present name was erro- 

 neously given it by Smith, which has been adopted by Hooker and 

 Babington. It is one of the most beautiful of the species, attaining 

 a height of 3, 4, and even 5 feet. It is abundant in the neighbour- 

 hood of London, especially near Hauipstead Heath. It is a native 

 alao of the more southern countries of Europe. Although it grows 

 in water, as its name would imply, it still grows in dry situations ; 

 and the name ituriatHc is more applicable to the original plant of 

 Liuwcux, the K. timotum of English botanists. Horses sometimes 

 eat this plant; and from n passage in Haller he seems to have 

 supposed that it was eaten by the Romans : he says, " Hoc fuerit 

 Equisetum quod a plebe Roman! in cibum recipitur." (Haller, 

 Hist' Hi. 1.) 



E. liuiotum has a smooth stem, with 14-16 slight furrows ; the 

 teeth of (he sheaths short, rigid, and acute ; the branches erect, 

 simple, whorled, often abortive. This is undoubtedly the E. Jturiutilr 

 of Linnaeus, but we have given the name of Smith, as that which has 

 been followed by Hooker and Babington in their Floras of Great 

 Britain. This plant is seen very commonly in ponds and ditches, and 

 sometimes in running streams, the roots and a portion of the stem 

 being immersed in water. It is a common plant throughout Europe. 

 Linnaeus says that in Sweden it is used as food for cattle, in order 

 that the cows may give more milk, and also that the rein-deer feed 

 on it He advise* that it should be collected in summer as fodder 

 for the winter. Cattle in this country will sometimes eat it. Mr. 

 Kuapp also records the fact that the common water-rat u very 

 fond of it. It is probable that in some states of the system of 

 animals it acts medicinally ; but neither this nor any other of the 

 specie* of Equudum would be fitted for the constant food of 

 animals. 



/,'. tylratifuia. Wood Horse-Tail, has the sterile and fertile sterna, 

 with about 12 furrows and numerous whorl* of slender compound 

 spreading or dcflexed branches ; the sheaths lax, with 6-10 membra- 

 nous rather blunt teeth. It is found in wet shady places and moist 

 wood* throughout Great Britain. 



/.' I >rummnadii has the sterile stem, with about twenty strite, very 

 scabrous, with prominent point*, particularly above; the branches 

 simple, with four simple angles, the fertile stem simple, with nume- 

 rous crowded deeply-toothed sheaths. This plant has not been long 

 known as a native of Great Britain, but Mr. Newman thinks it is 

 proh.iMy a common plant, and says it is identical with tin- 

 B. mmlironnt of Willdenow. 



K. artetat, Corn-Ki.-M Morse-Tail, has the sterile stem, with few 

 furrow*, slightly scabrous; the branches simple, rough, with four 

 simple angles, the fertile stem simple, with few lax distant shaaths. 

 This it the moot common of all the species, and frequently a source 

 of serious injury to the farmer and gardener. It U subject to 

 variation according to the locality in which it grows. It is easily 

 distinguished from K. umliromm, for which it might bo mistaken by 

 iU drooping and compound branches. 



(Newrn.iu, llittory of BritM Ftnu and Allitd Plantt ; Babington, 

 tfamnnl of Britith Ihlnny ; Loudon, Enryclojiadia of J'lanti.) 

 ' 



KICA NTMKMl'M, a genus of Acanthacooiis Plant*, with showy 

 purple flowers, come of whose species are occasionally seen in hot- 

 houses in this country. It has a salver-abaped corolla with a 6-clcft 

 uearly equal limb, a 4-pnrted equal calyx, and only two out of it 



four stamens fertile. Xnmi/irmttm piUduttttm and E. bicolor are the 

 handsomest species in cultivation, and when skilfully managed 

 produce a very striking appvaramv. 



KUANTHIS, a small genus of Plants cut oil from llrlUakorut, in 

 consequence of its having a deciduous calyx, stalked capsules, an 

 involucre to the flowers, and a totally different habit E. hytmiiltt, 

 nr Winter Aconite, is a small stemlesa tuberous herbaceous plant, 

 inhabiting shady place* in the midland ports of Europe, and rendering 

 our gardens gay in the earliest spring with its cups of bright yellow. 

 It has peltate, many-cut, pale green, smooth leaves, and a single- 

 flowered scape only a few inches high. 



Another species, E. tiibirica, inhabits Siberia. 



ERGOT, botanically considered, is a fungus belonging to the 

 Gymnomycetous division, and constituting one of two species of 

 Sperawedia admitted by Fries. He calls it S. clatta, and separate* 

 it from the genus Sclrrotium, to which it had previously been 

 referred, on account of its growing in the inside of other plant*, and 

 having no proper fructification. He defines the genus Sparw&edia 

 aa follows : " Variable, rounded, entophytal, rootless, of a fleshy 

 mealy homogeneous texture, with a rind concrete, scaly, or somewhat 

 pruinose. Proper fructification none." And then he adds " that it 

 is only a morbid condition of the grain of corn, not propagated by 

 seed, but generated by a particular combination of external influence* 

 (coemica momenta)." Eudlicher takes the same view of the nature 

 of ergot, only with more consistency he does not admit it as a real 

 fungus, but only enumerates it as a diseased state of the seed of 

 grasses, swelling into a fungoid body, and covered externally with 

 powder. From the researches of the late Mr. Quekett it appear* 

 that a true fungus exists in the grain of rye during its early stage* 

 of growth, which gives it the peculiar appearance called Ergot He 

 describes the sporidia of this fungus as elliptical, moniliform, finally 

 separating, transparent, and seldom containing more than one, two, or 

 three well-defined greenish granules. Mr. Quekett called the fungus 

 Eryoletia abortifaciem, in reference to it* action on the system. 

 For its action, see EKUOT, in ARTS AND So. Div. 



The ergot of rye is not confined to that kind of grass, but attacks 

 many other species. Fries distinguishes it by the lengthened form 

 and white interior from SpermOtdia Patpali, a Carolina ergot, which 

 is globose and somewhat compressed, scaly and rough externally, 

 pale brown and yellowish inside. A third species attacks Indian 

 corn in Columbia, and has a pear-shaped figure. 



KKGYNE. [IsoroDA.] 



ERI'CA, a most extensive and beautiful genus of Plant*, the type 

 of the natural order Ericaceir. It is distinguished by its calyx 

 being 4-leaved, its corolla 4-toothed, and its fruit a dry, 4- or 

 8-celled, many-seeded capsule, opening into valves with the 

 dissepiments projecting from their middle. 



Under this character is included a great variety of species having 

 very narrow linear leaves arranged in whorls, and so little different 

 in their vegetation in most cases, that when out of flower they are 

 often not easily distinguished from each other; but exhibiting a 

 surprising diversity in their flowers, in which their great beauty 

 resides. The richness of colour, the elegance and variety of form, 

 the delicacy of texture, or the minute microscopic perfection of 

 their corolla, are such as no words can describe. Lovely aa even 

 our wild moorland heaths are, they rank among the lowest in point 

 of beauty in this extraordinary genus, in which all the hues of red, 

 pink, and purple vie with each other in the most brilliant manner, 

 assuming every tint but blue, and fading into the purest and most 

 transparent white. Some of the species have the corolla as much as 

 two inches long, in others it is not bigger than a pepper-corn ; in 

 some it is long and slender, in others inflated like a flask, or dilated 

 like a vase of the purest form, or as round as an air-bubble ; and 

 there are many in which it is split almost to its base, and immersed 

 in a calyx whose texture and colours are even more brilliant than its 

 own. Here we have a species the surface of whose corolla rivals in 

 evenness and polish the finest porcelain ; there another appears 

 covered all over with hairs, exuding a glutinous secretion, which 

 glitters upon it* sides like solid crystals ; and some again have their 

 colours so dimmed by a loose shaggy coat, that their real tint can 

 hardly be ascertained. There are even some in which the corolla 

 assumes the very colour of the leaves, only clearer, brighter, -.mil 

 richer. This great difference in the structure of the flowers of 

 different species is accompanied by distinctions in their anthers, 

 which are either muticous (destitute of appendage*), cristate 

 (furnished with tiro little broad projecting membranes), or aristato 

 (that is, having a couple of bristle-shaped processes proceeding from 

 their base). It has lately been proposed to take advantage of these 

 and similar differences for breaking up the genus Erica, now consisting 

 of between 300 and 400 supposed species, into a number of new 

 genera ; and accordingly in Don's ' General System of Gardening and 

 Botany,' we find no fewer than twenty new groups formed at the 

 expense of Erica. 



The genus is confined to the Old World. A few species occur in 

 the North of Europe, and others in the countries bordering on the 

 Mediterranean. In Great Britain, Heather (Erica, or CaJluna vulgarit) 

 [CAU.UNA] coven large tract* of waste laud, and is used to thatch 

 house*, to moke brooms, and even beds, in the northern parts of the 



