THE HEATH TRIBE. 159 



liness ; and it is very easily known. We will say 

 nothing about its leaves, firstly, because they are va- 

 riable in appearance ; and, secondly, because it is now 

 time we should leave ofi" testing the Dicotyledonous 

 character of a plant at every step; for you must by 

 this time have begun to recognize, with certainty, the 

 features of that primary class, without attention to 

 its technical distinctions. It is in the flowers that 

 the great peculiarities of the tribe are conspicuous. 

 Let us take anv Heath for an examination ; that which 

 I have at hand is the " Hispid" (Erica hispida), 

 so called on account of the little stiffisli hairs with 

 which it is covered on every part. Like nearly the 

 whole of the genus, it is a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, where extensive tracts are covered with count- 

 less species of all manner of forms and colours. The 

 Hispid Heath has a calyx of four sepals (Plate XII. 1. 

 jig. 2. a.) ; and a corolla looking like a hollow globe, 

 w^ith four short teeth at one end ; it is of the clearest 

 pink ; you may see its veins through the skin, so 

 transparent is every part ; and their arrangement will 

 reveal to you the fact of this hollow globe being in 

 reality composed of four petals, so completely united 

 at their edges that nothing but their points is to be 

 distinguished. 



Arising from beneath the ovary, and perfectly sepa- 

 rate from the corolla, are eight stamens (Jig. 3.), each 

 of which has a slender filament, and a singular pur- 

 ple anther, with two distinct lobes, shaped like the 

 two prongs of a fork, and opening by a hole at their 

 upper end. This character of holes in the end of the 



