162 LETTER XLI. 



mouths of their corolla stuffed with snow-white hairs. 

 The Pink Epacris (Epacris ruscifolia, Plate XLI I. 

 2. Jig, 1.) is one of the easiest to procure. 



It forms a slender heath-like plant, with stiff, ovate, 

 sharp-pointed leaves, in the bosoms of the uppermost 

 of which the flowers are closely arranged upon short 

 stalks, covered completely by scale-like bracts (^^. 2.), 

 which one can hardly distinguish from the five-leaved 

 calyx. The tubular bell-shaped corolla, with a short, 

 spreading, five-lobed border, the superior ovary with 

 five many-seeded cells {fig. 6.), the hypogjuous scales, 

 {fig. 5. a.), the single style, the obscurely lobed stigma, 

 and, finally, the dry seed-vessel, containing a vast 

 quantity of minute seeds {fig. 8.), are all characters in 

 accordance with those of the Heath Tribe. But in 

 the stamens there is a material difference ; they arise 

 from the side of the corolla (fig. 3.) in this species, 

 but sometimes they agree with the Heath Tribe in 

 growing from below the ovary : the anthers are always 

 one-celled, opening by two valves {fig. 4. a.), and 

 never two-celled, opening by five valves, or two pores. 

 It must be confessed, these are not points of much 

 importance, but Botanists seem generally agreed upon 

 recognizing the Epacris Tribe as distinct from that 

 of Heaths, and we may as well smm with the stream, 

 as it is really of no practical importance whether the 

 Epacris Tribe is considered a distinct assemblage, 

 or a mere section of the Heath Tribe. 



In general, both the Epacris and Heath Tribes have 

 a dry seed-vessel ; but as we have the succulent 

 Arbutus and Cranberry among the latter, so we have 



