33. — Bain’s FI. of Yorksh. p. 70. — Leight. FI. of Shropsh, p. 1 G4. — Mack. Catal. 
VI. of Irel. p. 37. ; FI. Hibern. p. 181. — Erica botuliformis, Salisb. In Tr. of 
Linn. Soc. v. vl. p. 369. — Erica Barbantica folio coridis hirsuto quaterno, 
Ray’s Syn. p. 471. — Erica ex rubro nigricans scoparia, Bauh. Pin. p. 486. — 
Erica anglicana parva, capitulis hirsutis, Bauh. Hist. v. i. pt. n. lib. 10. p. 
358. — Eremocallis glomerata, Gray’s Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 398. 
Localities. — On heaths, and moory ground; frequent. 
A small Shrub. — Flowers from June to September. 
Root creeping. Stems numerous, upright, from 4 inches to a foot 
or more high, branched, leafy, brownish, clothed with projecting 
hairs ; naked at bottom, and very rough from the remains of the 
leaves which have fallen off. Leaves crowded, spreading, on short, 
somewhat decurrent, petioles, 4 in a whorl, sometimes 5, egg-spear- 
shaped or oblong, the upper surface covered with dense white down, 
the margins revolute and nearly smooth, fringed with long project- 
ing bristles, which, in the young leaves, are each tipped with a 
small round globule ; under surface white, with a downy mid-rib. 
Flowers of a delicate wax-like hue, of every shade of rose-colour, 
sometimes snow-white, on short downy peduncles, collected into a 
dense, round, terminal, capitate cluster, all elegantly drooping to- 
wards one side. Calyx oblong ; sepals strap-shaped, downy, and 
fringed with glandular bristles. Corolla (fig. 2.) about three lines 
long, nearly egg-shaped, ventricose, a little downy near the mouth, 
which is small, and 4-cleft. Stamens concealed within the corolla ; 
anthers with a pair of simple appendages, or horns, at the base of 
each. Style about as long as the corolla, in some flowers slightly 
protruding. Capsule roundish, hairy ; valves concave, with a fixed 
partition (dissepiment) from the centre of each. Seeds numerous, 
very small, egg-shaped, yellowish, minutely pitted. Whole plant 
of a greyish hue. 
In June, 1833, Mr. Leighton found on the Vownog Bog near 
Westfelton, Shropshire, a plant of this species having the corolla 
cleft into several divisions, and the place of the stamens occupied 
by petal-like segments bearing imperfectly developed lobes of an- 
thers ; a few perfect stamens were also present. The same trans- 
formation in the corolla of this species had been previously observed 
by W. C. Trevelyan, Esq. See Hook. Brit. FI. (lsted.) p. 176. 
Erica tetralix is a native of most parts of the North of Europe, in boggy or 
moory ground. It is a handsome little plant, and well worthy a place in the 
flower garden. Sir J. E. Smith observes, “ It is wonderful that this most ele- 
gant, and not uncommon, plant is scarcely delineated at all by the old authors, 
nor by any of them correctly.” It is the badge of the Scottish Clan Macdonald. 
In the language of flowers. Heath is made the emblem of solitude; and thus, 
when the lover presents his mistress with a bouquet of heath and pansies, she 
understands his heart would be at ease, if his solitude were blessed by her society. 
•* Some poets praise the violet’s hue, 
And some the lily’s lightness ; 
Some Scotland’s bells of bonny blue, 
And some the rose’s brightness ; 
But, oh, give me the heath in bloom, 
That, on the wild moor growing, 
So sweetly scatters its perfume 
When wint’ry winds are blowing 1 
“ Rich odours seethe the mignonette, 
And fill the young May-flower ; 
And there’s a softer fragrance yet 
Breathes in the jessamine bower. 
But, oh, give me the heath in bloom, 
That, on the wild moor growing, 
So sweetly scatters its perfume 
When wint’ry winds are blowing." 
J. L. Stevens. 
