Erica.] XLV. ERICACEAE. 288 



A genus of about 400 genuine species, besides the innumerable 

 garden hybrids and varieties. Its geographical range is eminently 

 Atlantic. The greater number of species come from south-western 

 Africa, where few extend to the eastward. In Europe also Heaths 

 are strictly western, with the exception of two or three species 

 which extend eastward along the sandy wastes of northern Europe, or 

 round the Mediterranean to the frontiers of Asia. The genus is other- 

 wise unknown in Asia, America, or Australia. 



Anthers included within the corolla. 



Corolla nearly } inch long, oblique at the mouth. Anthers 



without awns 3. E. eiliarit. 



Corolla about J inch long, straight at the mouth. Anthers 

 with 2 awns, or little appendages at the insei-tion of the 

 filament. 

 Leaves 3 in a whorl. Flowers numerous, in oblong or 



elongated racemes 1. E. cinerea. 



Leaves 4 in a whorL Flowers few in terminal clusters or 



umbels 2. E. Tetralix. 



Anthers protruded from the corolla, without awns or appen- 

 dages. 



Corolla campanulate or nearly globular. Sepals short. An- 

 thers short, with slender filaments 5. E. vagans. 



Corolla narrow-ovoid. Sepals linear. Anthers oblong, with 



flattened filaments 4. E. earned. 



1. E. cinerea, Linn. (fig. 637). Bell Heather. A small bush. Leaves 

 linear, finer and more pointed than in any of our other Heaths, and 

 usually 4 in a whorl, with clusters of small leaves in their axils. 

 Flowers numerous, of a reddish purple, in very showy, dense terminal 

 racemes. Sepals small and narrow. Corolla ovoid, about 3 lines long, 

 straight at the mouth, with 4 very small lobes or teeth. Stamens 

 enclosed in the corolla, with small toothed appendages at the insertion 

 of the anther on the filament. 



Common in western Europe, from southern Spain to Norway. Ranges 

 over Britain, covering immense tracts of country on the Scotch, Irish, 

 Welsh, and some English moors. PL summer and autumn. 



2. E. Tetralix, Linn. (fig. 638). Cross-leaved H. Generally a lower 

 plant than E. cinerea, bushy at the base, with rather short, erect, 

 flowering branches ; the leaves in fours, shorter and less pointed 

 than in that species, and ciliate with short stiff hairs, besides a 

 short whitish down, which often clothes the branches and upper 

 leaves. Flowers about the size of those of E. cinerea, but more pink 

 in colour, and forming little terminal clusters or close umbels. Appen- 

 dages to the anthers entire, awnlike, and often nearly as long as the 

 anthers themselves. 



A strictly western species in southern Europe, but in northern 

 Europe extends over Sweden and northern Germany to Courland and 

 Livonia, but never so gregarious as E. cinerea. Ranges all over Britain, 

 and very common in the west. Fl. summer, rather late. A very 

 marked variety, with shorter and broader leaves of a darker green, 

 from Connemara, in Ireland, and also from the Asturias, has been 

 distinguished under the name of Mackaiana (Bab.) as a species, and 

 was formerly adopted as such by myself, but the numerous inter- 

 mediate specimens I have since seen induce me now to consider it 

 as a mere variety. Intermediate forms between this and E, 

 observed in Cornwall and Dorset, are natural hybrids. 



