56 



THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



or four years without shifting, and flower well. I 

 have plants of JE. retorta here, in pots seven inches 

 in diameter, which are very bushy, being eighteen 

 inches across, and fourteen inches high above the 

 pot ; £!. infundihidifdrmis, two feet and a half in 

 diameter, and two feet nine inches high ; Erica pi- 

 losa, between five and six feet high, and three feet 

 across, in pots eleven inches in diameter : these have 

 not been shifted for five years, and are in high health, 

 and covered with strong fine flowers from the mouth 

 of the pot to the top of the plant." (Caled. Mem. iii. 

 327.) 



" A prejudice," Page observes, " having spread 

 that the culture of Heaths is difficult, one of the 

 greatest ornaments of the green-house has hence of 

 late been neglected ; although the method of culture 

 is as easy and nearly as certain as that of the Gera- 

 nium, but requiring a little more delicacy in the exe- 

 cution." {Prodromus, S^c. art. Erica.) 



One circumstance in favour of the culture of heaths 

 is, that they are not subject to insects, or at least 

 very rarely so. 



Subsect. 3. Geraniums. 



The GeraniacecB come next in order. This is a 

 beautiful natural family of plants, comprehending 

 numerous species, herbaceous, sufFruticose, and 

 shrubby or shrub-like, but all somewhat of a sue- 



