i6o 



BRITISH FLORA 



plant is i-ii ft. in height, and flowers between 

 June and September. It is a perennial shrub. 



Cornish Heath (Erica vagans, L.). The habitat 

 of this plant is heaths. As in the case of the 

 other heaths the plant has the shrub habit. The 

 stem is hairless, stout, woody, much branched, 

 the branches stiff, erect, tufted, densely leafy. 

 The leaves are smooth, linear, bent-back, 3 or 4-5 

 in a whorl, the margins rolled-back over the mid- 

 rib. The flowers are erect, crimson, in closely- 

 clustered racemes, in the axils below the top of 

 the branches, on slender, ultimate flower-stalks. 

 There are bracteoles in the middle of the latter. 

 The sepals are blunt, ovate, fring-ed with hairs. 

 The corolla is bell-shaped, short, with short lobes. 

 The anthers are divided into two at the tip, half- 

 projecting, and have no awns, being- lateral, con- 

 sisting of 2 cells, swollen below, and are chocolate- 

 coloured *or dark-purple. The ovary is smooth. 

 The plant is 1-3 ft. in height, flowering in July 

 and August. It is a perennial shrub. 



Irish Heath (Erica mediterranea, L., v. hiber- 

 nica, Syme). The habitat of this species is wet 

 or boggy heaths and mountain bogs. The Irish 

 Heath has the usual heath or shrub habit. The 

 stem is erect, the plant bushy and smooth, with 

 numerous rigid branches, which end in leafy 

 racemes. The leaves are numerous, erect to 

 spreading, 3 or 4 in a whorl, crowded, on short 

 stalks, linear, with margins rolled-back to the 

 midrib, united below to the under-surface, flat 

 above, there being a furrow in the middle below, 

 and decurrent below. The flowers are crimson, in 

 dense, terminal, axillary, drooping racemes. The 

 sepals are ovate to lance-shaped. The corolla is 

 pitcher -shaped, with broad lobes. There are 

 bracteoles above the middle of the ultimate flower- 

 stalks, which are solitary or in pairs. The stamens 

 and style project slightly, and the latter lengthens. 

 The anthers are terminal, have no awns, and are 

 divided above into 2 lobes. The ovary is not 

 clothed with hairs. The plant is 1-3 ft. in height. 

 It flowers early, between March and May. The 

 Irish Heath is a perennial evergreen shrub. 



St. Dabeoc's Heath (Boretta cantabrica, O. 

 Kuntze = Dabcecia polifolia, Don). The habitat 

 of this plant is boggy heaths. The habit is the 

 shrub habit. The stem is at length prostrate, 

 bushy, with scaly bark, the branches slender, 

 hairy, glandular. The leaves are oval, elliptic 

 to ovate, blunt, fringed with hairs, flat, dark- 

 green above, glossy above, silvery white and 

 woolly or cottony below, borne on short stalks, 

 the margins rolled back. The flowers are 5-10, 

 crimson or purple, rarely white, in simple, loose, 

 one-sided, terminal, glandular racemes, drooping, 

 borne on short, stout, curved, ultimate stalks, 

 with leafy bracts. The sepals are ovate to lance- 

 shaped, fringed with hairs. The corolla has 4 

 short lobes. The anthers are large, arrow- 

 shaped, purple, 2-fid, with flat anther-stalks. The 

 ovary is hairy, glandular. The plant is 1-2 ft. in 

 height, flowering between July and September. 

 It is a perennial shrub. 



Blue Heath (Bryanthus caruleus, Dip = Phyllo- 



doce ccerulea, Dip = Menziesia carulea, Sm. = 

 Bryanthus taxifolius, A. Gray). The habitat of 

 this plant is heathy moors on Scotch mountains. 

 The plant has the shrub habit. The plant is 

 woody, much-branched, short, the branches tuber- 

 cled, naked below, hairy above. The leaves are 

 glossy, leathery, rigid, linear, blunt, spreading, 

 shortly-stalked, crowded, the margins turned 

 back, with a few small teeth, channelled above, 

 without hairs. The leaf -stalks are glandular, 

 hairy. The flowers are purplish-blue, few, droop- 

 ing, in terminal, umbel-like corymbs. The sepals 

 are ovate to lance -shaped, acute, glandular, 

 downy. The corolla is pitcher-shaped, 5-lobed. 

 The flower-stalks are terminal, simple, clustered. 

 The purple anthers are not so long as the anther- 

 stalks, which are not clothed with hairs. The 

 ovary is glandular, downy. The plant is 4-10 in. 

 in height. It flowers in June and July. It is a 

 perennial shrub. 



Ledum palustre, L. The habitat of this plant 

 is heaths. The habit is that of a shrub. The 

 leaves are linear, oblong, blunt, with the margin 

 much bent-back, and with a red felt below, as 

 well as on the young shoots. The flowers are 

 white, in terminal clusters. The corolla is wheel- 

 shaped. The stamens project some length. The 

 plant is 1-2 ft. in height, and flowers in June and 

 July, being a perennial shrub. 



Smaller Winter Green (Pyrola minor, L.). 

 This plant is indigenous, found in mossy woods 

 and thickets and heaths. The plant has more or 

 less the rosette habit. The stem is ascending. 

 The leaves usually form a rosette, and are nume- 

 rous, but they may be alternate. They are 

 leathery, round to ovate or oval, with scalloped 

 margin, the blade narrowed to a long leaf-stalk. 

 The flowers are white with a rose tint, borne on 

 a slender scape, in short racemes, and are droop- 

 ing, round, nearly closed. There are two lance- 

 shaped or awl-like bracteoles. The calyx-lobes 

 are ovate, acute. The petals are concave and 

 close over the stamens. The ultimate flower- 

 stalks are very short. The stamens are bent 

 inwards, and as long as the short style, which 

 is straight, with no ring below the stigma. The 

 style does not lengthen in fruit. The rays of the 

 stigma are large. The capsule is drooping. The 

 plant is 8-12 in. high, flowering in June and July, 

 and is a herbaceous perennial. 



ORDER PRIMULACE^E 



Bastard Pimpernel or Chaffweed (Centunculus 

 minimus, L.). This is a native species, and local. 

 The habitat is moist, sandy, damp, turfy, gravelly 

 places. The habit is prostrate. The stems are 

 branched below. The leaves are alternate, ovate 

 or lance -shaped, acute, borne on short stalks. 

 The flowers are numerous, stalkless, solitary in 

 the axils, white or pink or pale rose-colour. 

 The sepals are lance- shaped, longer than the 

 corolla, which is erect, 4-fid, very small, and with- 

 out glands at the base. The capsule is round, 

 opening transversely, many -seeded, the seeds 



