ERICA MURRAYANA. 
(Mr. Murray's Heath.) 
Class. Order • 
OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ERICACEAE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx four-sepalled, inferior. I Specific Character. — Plant with much of the habit 
\'orolla with four divisions. Stamens inserted in the of E. aristata and flowers intermediate between that 
eceptacle. Anthers bifid. Capsules four-celled. I species and E. vestita coccinea. 
The practice of hybridising Heaths has now been carried to a considerable 
xtent by some cultivators, and our pages have contained figures of several 
xeellent seedlings. But no one will assert that there is not an ample field for 
urther improvement in this way, since the genus is so very large, and the species 
o varied. 
The plant before us is another worthy result of experiment in the intermixture 
if properties. It was reared from seeds by Mr. A. Turnbull, of Bothwell Castle 
hardens, near Hamilton, Scotland, and has been named by him after his friend 
dr. Murray, of the Glasgow Botanic Garden. Mr. Turnbull has very kindly 
ent us specimens, from which we have had our drawing made, and he favours us 
vith the following history of the variety - 
“ E. aristata minor being a dwarf compact grower, and E. vestita coccinea a 
ambling grower, my object in crossing them was, if possible, to get a variety 
nth the dwarf habit of the former, and the brilliant flowers of the latter. With 
his view I impregnated E. aristata minor with the pollen of E. vestita coccinea , in 
he spring of 1837* The seeds ripened freely, and were sown in the autumn of 
he same year. A few of them vegetated the following spring (1838), and the 
emainder twelve months after. As I could not spare room for keeping them all, 
o soon as I could form some idea of their habits I destroyed all those that 
pproximated most nearly to the male parent, reserving only six or eight of those 
hat appeared most dwarf. Of these I bloomed four in the autumn and winter of 
842, three of them being very nearly the same in every respect as the specimen 
ent, while the other one is very different, being contracted at the mouth of the 
