ERICA 



519 



Native of Spain and Portugal, introduced according to Aiton by the then 

 Earl of Coventry in 1769. In the richness and brightness of its colouring it is 

 the best of the taller heaths, and flowers from April to June. Unfortunately it 

 is not absolutely hardy, and very severe winters almost clear the country of 

 it, for which reason it has always been rare. It has lived in the open at Kew 

 since 1896, although sometimes hard hit by frost. It should thrive per- 

 manently in the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, etc. In gardens, E. mediterranea is 

 often confused with it and flowers at the same time, but is readily distinguished 

 by its cylindrical clusters 

 of blossom, the individual 

 flowers coming in the leaf- 

 axils along the shoot not 

 terminal as in australis. 

 The flower arrangement 

 of E. australis is similar 

 to that of E. stricta, but the 

 latter only commences to 

 bloom when australis is 

 over, and it does so on 

 the shoots of the current 

 year. 



E. CARNEA, Linnczus. 



A low shrub of tufted 

 habit, from 6 to 10 ins. 

 high, the branches becom- 

 ing prostrate and spreading 

 on old plants ; young twigs 

 smooth. Leaves linear, \ 

 to \ in. long, dark glossy 

 green above, channelled 

 beneath ; arranged mostly 

 in whorls of fours, the 



whorls 



to 



n. apart. 



Flowers borne singly or in 



pairs in the leaf -axils at 



the end of the previous 



summer's growth, making 



cylindrical racemes i to 2 



ins. long. Corolla deep 



rosy red, scarcely in. long, 



cylindrical ; calyx - lobes 



narrowly oblong, more ERICA AUSTRALIS. 



than half the length of 



the corolla, anthers protruded, dark red ; flower-stalk about as long as the 



calyx. 



Var. ALBA (often grown as E. herbacea). Flowers white. 



Native of the Alps of Central Europe ; introduced by the Earl of Coventry 

 in 1763. One of the most delightful of all dwarf shrubs, this heath is especially 

 valuable for its early flowering. Soon after New Year's Day the blossoms 

 begin to open, and often by February the plants are completely transformed 

 into tufts or masses of rosy red, all the more pleasing because the prevailing 

 tints of the plants then in flower are yellow, white, and blue. In a young 

 state the plants form dainty little tufts, but with age the branches spread 

 over the ground, and one plant will in time cover 2 ft. or more of space, 



