605 



ERICACEAE. 



ERICHTHUS. 



C06 



inland. There is a double variety of this species which is extremely 

 beautiful. All our British heaths are improved by cultivation, and 

 are general favourites where the climate and soil are suited to them. 

 They will not however thrive in hot dry places and in any common 

 soil, but require sandy peat earth, and a situation where they are 

 moderately shaded from the sun. Erica cornea, one of the few 

 plants whose flowers bid defiance to the rigour of winter, and appear 

 as the earliest harbingers of spring, is found wild in Germany and 

 generally on the mountains of middle Europe. 



But it is at the Cape of Good Hope that the principal part of 

 the species is found ; indeed the whole of those which are cultivated 

 in greenhouses. In their native country they are by no means so 

 handsome as when cultivated, but form scraggy shrubby bushes, 

 with so little beauty, that the colonist boors have not vouchsafed to 

 give them even a name. 



ERICA'CE^E, a natural order of Exogenous Plants, deriving their 

 name from the extensive genus that forms the subject of the last 

 article. It is readily known from all other orders by its anthers 

 bursting by pores at their apex, the stamens being hypogynous, the 

 corolla monopetalous, and the ovary containing more cells than two. 

 By this character are combined with the genus Erica, the fragrant 

 richly-coloured Azalea, the shady evergreen Rhododendron, and the 

 delicate irritable Kalmia, together with Arbutus, Andromeda, Gaul- 

 theria, and many others equally beautiful ; in fact it is probable 

 that if it were necessary for a botanist to name some one natural 

 order as pre-eminent for beauty, this would be the one selected. It 

 is therefore not a little curious that it should also be an order 

 of poisonous plants; for one would hardly expect danger to lurk 

 beneath forma so fair. Nevertheless Rhododendron ponticum, Azalea 

 ponticn, and various Kalmice and Andromedce are notoriously delete- 

 rious, and even the Arbutnt berries are in no inconsiderable degree 

 narcotic. 



The order is unknown in very hot countries, except at considerable 

 elevations ; it appears generally to love exposed situations, and, with 

 the exception of Erica, itself, to follow mountain chains, as it advances 

 from the cool plains of the temperate zone to equinoctial regions. 

 Hence, although we find Sefaria, Gayliutaccia, Andromeda, and 

 others in Peru, Brazil, Ceylon, Java, Madagascar, and elsewhere, it is 

 only upon the tops of lofty mountains or upon their sides. 



Ericacem are frequently polypetalous, and give rise, along with other 

 similar cases, to a suspicion that the usual division of Exngens into 

 polypetalous, monopetalous, and incomplete sub-classes, is essentially 

 bad. [ 



Erica longiflora. 



1, stamens nncl pistil; 2, calyx; 3, ovary ; 4, anther ; 5, section of seed, 

 flowing the embryo. 



The following are the British species of this genus, with their 

 dintinctive characters, as given in Babington's ' Manual of British 

 Botany : ' 



Corolla globose or urceolate, stamens included, filaments capillary, 

 stigma peltate. 



K. Telralix, with the leaves 4 in a whorl, downy above and on the 

 midrib beneath; the sepals linear, downy; the ovary downy. Its 

 flowers are rose-coloured. It grows commonly on boggy heaths, and 

 blossoms in July and August. 



S. Mackainna, Mackay's Heath. Leaves 4, midrib beneath and 

 upper surface glabrous ; the sepals ovate-lanceolate, and with the 

 ovary glabrous. The flowers are purplish. The only locality known 



for it in the British Islands is between Roundstone and Clifden iu 

 Connamara, Ireland. 



. cinei-ea, Fine-Leaved Heath. The leaves are 3 in a whorl, keeled 

 beneath, with a central furrow ; glabrous flowers in dense whorled 

 racemes. Flowers reddish-purple. It is found on dry heaths. 



E. ciliaris. Leaves 4 in a whorl, ovate, ciliated ; flowers iu terminal 

 unilateral racemes. It is a rare plant. 



Corollas campanulate or shortly tubular, stamens exserted, filaments 

 flattened, style capitate. 



E. Mediterranea. Leaves 4 in a whorl, linear, glabrous above, convex, 

 with a central furrow beneath ; corolla cylindrical, urceolate ; anthers 

 without awns. Found in Ireland, in mountain bogs in the west of 

 Mayo and Galway. 



E. iiagans, Cornish Heath. Leaves 4-5 in a whorl, corolla most 

 campauulate. Flowers red or white ; anthers purple. It is found 

 in the western parts of Cornwall in England, and on the coast of 

 Waterford in Ireland. 



ERICHTHUS, Latreille's name for a genus of deep-sea Crustaceans, 

 and placed by M. Milne-Edwards between the genera Squillericltthiu 

 and A lima. The last-named author makes the tribe Erichthians 

 (Erichthiens) belong to the family of Unicuirassiated Stomapods 

 (Stomapodes Unicuirasse's), the general characters of the tribe being 

 an undivided carapace and a styliform rostrum ; no moveable rostral 

 plate ; and branchiae in general rudimentary. 



The tribe, according to M. Milne-Edwards, is composed of a certain 

 number of small crustaceans approximating to the Squillce, but which 

 have in general only rudimentary branchite, and are often completely 

 deprived of them. They are easily distinguished by their carapace, 

 which is large, lamellar, generally transparent, without longitudinal 

 furrows or distinct lobes, and always armed with a styliform rostrum, 

 which advances above the ophthalmic and antennular rings. These 

 first two rings of the head are less distinct than they are in Squilla, 

 but have very nearly the same conformation, and move upon the 

 succeeding cephalic segment. The internal antennas are inserted 

 below and behind the ocular peduncles ; they are rather distant from 

 each other, and their slender and cylindrical peduncles are composed 

 of three joints, and carry at their extremity three multiarticulate 

 filaments. The external antennsc are inserted at some distance behind 

 the preceding, and are directed outwards ; their peduncle is large, 

 and formed of two joints, of which the first gives origin by the 

 anterior border of its extremity to a slender and short stem (tige), 

 composed of two peduncular joints and a multiarticulate filament, 

 the second carrying at its extremity a large oval-shaped blade or 

 lamina with ciliated edges. The epistome is not projecting and 

 swollen as in Squilla, and the mouth resembles a pear-shaped tubercle, 

 situated near the middle or towards the posterior third of the lower 

 surface of the carapace. The upper lip has the form of a triangle, 

 with a rounded base which is directed backwards. The mandibles 

 are vertical, swollen at their base, and armed with two branches with 

 dentilated borders, the upper of which raises itself into the interior 

 of the pharynx ; their palpiform stem (tige) is either rudimentary or 

 null. The lower lip is large and composed of two swollen lobes. 

 The jaws are small, and of the same conformation as those of Squilla, 

 excepting that those of the second pair are narrower. The members 

 which represent the anterior jaw-feet, the prehensile feet (pates 

 ravisseuses), the three pairs of subcheliform feet applied against the 

 mouth, and the three pairs of natatory feet, which terminate the 

 series of thoracic members, are formed and disposed in the same 

 manner as they are in Squilla. It is only to be remarked that often 

 the three pairs of subcheliform feet are less approximated to the 

 mouth than they are in the Squillce, and that those of the last three 

 pairs are sometimes rudimentary. The carapace is prolonged more 

 or less far beyond the last rings of the thorax, or even beyond the 

 first segments of the abdomen, but without adhering thereto. The 

 abdomen is elongated ; its last segment is very large, and entirely 

 covers the appendages of the preceding ring, which are short, but 

 formed like those of the Squillie. Finally, the false feet suspended 

 from the first five rings of the abdomen are more slender and more 

 elongated than in the other division of the family, and, as has 

 already been noticed, present in general only the vestiges of branchia;. 



The Ericktki have as yet occurred hardly anywhere else than iu 

 the ocean (haute mer), and have hitherto been found only in tropical 

 regions. The following are the characters of the genus : 



Squillerichthus. Carapace armed with spiniform prolongations and 

 covering the base of the internal antenna;, but posteriorly it does not 

 overpass (not comprising the spines) the last ring of the thorax. The 

 rostrum is styliform and very long. The eyes are large, pear-shaped, 

 and articulated, on a very slender and rather long cylindrical peduncle. 

 The ophthalmic ring is not distinct from the antennular ring, as iu 

 the Squillido? but the mode of insertion of the antenna) is the same 

 as in those animals and in the Erichthi. The antenna; of the first 

 pair are directed forwards, and present nothing remarkable. The 

 external antenna; are directed outwards, as in the Erichihi, and present 

 also a large peduncle, carrying at its extremity a large oval-shaped 

 lamina ciliated all round, and giving insertion, by its anterior border, 

 to a very short stemlet (tigelle), composed of two peduncular joints 

 and a terminal filament. The mouth is little distant from the base of 



