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EPACRIS GRANDIFLORA. 
(gREAT-FLOWERED EPACRIS.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
EPACRIDEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx scaled, or tlie parts of it laid over each other like the tiles of a house. 
Corolla a tube. Stamina inserted in the throat of the tube. Capsule five-celled. 
Specific Character. — Leaves egg-shaped, but ending in [a sharp point, very shining ; Corolla, tube three 
times the length of the calyx, bright crimson colour, terminating in greenish yellow, very shining, and 
hanging from the plant in a very graceful manner. 
All the species of Epacris are natives of the neighbourhood of New South 
Wales, and are very handsome shrubby greenhouse plants. Their culture is very 
simple and easy ; the E. microphylla and exserta require to be potted in about equal 
parts of light sandy loam and peat, but all the rest thrive best in sandy peat alone. 
They nearly all come into flower about the end of March or beginning of April, 
and continue blooming until June or July, although the present subject flowers 
most of the winter, as well as spring and summer. 
In June they must be turned out of doors with the other greenhouse plants, but 
previous to which, it will be necessary to pot them, in most cases shifting them 
into larger pots ; this is indispensable, as their roots are of so fine a texture, that if 
the pots be placed out of doors, and consequently exposed to the alternations of heat 
and cold more than when in the house, the roots against the sides of the pots will 
receive material injury, the plants will become brown, and in most cases die ; this 
we have seen in very many instances. 
The best way of propagating them is by cuttings, which should be put in early 
in the spring ; they will strike if put in at other times of the year, but not so freely. 
Take off the extreme ends, about one inch or an inch and a half long, and plant 
them in pots of sand, cover them with bell-glasses, and give them a similar treat- 
ment to Erica cuttings ; when they have struck root, pot them into small pots 
filled with sandy peat, and place the pots in a frame where there is a little heat ; and 
when the}' - have again begun to grow, remove them into a warm part of the green- 
house, and treat them in the same way as the old plants. The whole of the order 
