THE EPACRIS TRIBE. 



161 



few inches long, and covered with tiny roundish leaves, 

 most beautifullv dotted on their underside. The 

 flowers of this plant are little rose-coloured bells, stand- 

 ing upright upon slender stalks, which afterwards 

 curve downwards to bury the fruit. Its stamens are 

 so thickly covered with the most delicate, glittering, 

 jointed, entangled hairs, that they look like five yellow 

 anthers, standing on the top of a tuft of silver wool. 

 Wliere the Sun-dew, Parnassia, Butterwort, and all 

 those curious little bog plants occur, there you will be 

 sure to meet with this charming species, which Bota- 

 nists have truly called the delicate (Anagallis tenella), 

 for we have no more fragile flower in all our British 

 Flora. 



From these we turn to plants so like the Heath 

 Tribe (Vol. 1. page 158. Plate XII. 1.) that it is use- 

 less for me to do more than point out in what they 

 differ. I am adverting to the Epacris Tribe. In the 

 smallness of their leaves, the brittleness of their stems, 

 their uses to man, and the gayness of their flowers, in 

 the clearness and brilliancy of their colours, and in 

 general points of organization, in short, in all that 

 can strike the casual observer, the two tribes are 

 alike ; one being the pride of Europe and Africa, the 

 other the glory of the hills and wastes of the Austra- 

 lian continent and islands. Several species are com- 

 mon in greenhouses, particularly of the genus Epacris, 

 with their bells of pink, or red, or white, of Styphelias 

 and DracophylluviSy with their long tubes of crimson and 

 other colours, or of White beards (L,eucoipogons)ywith the 



VOL. II, M 



