4 
51. ERICA CEJE. 
panicles below the extreme ends of the branches ; pedic. mostly 
shorter than the cor. dark red or purple smooth 3-bracteate at 
the base, br. pale cream-col. smooth ovate, like but narrower 
and smaller than the sep. ; cor. about twice the length of the 
ovate or oblong-ovate sep. narrowly campanulate, open and not 
constricted at top below the 4 short broadly half-ovate more or 
less obtuse erect lobes; anthers shortly 2-caudate, awns or au- 
ricles short broad ligulate minutely serrulate or subciliato-den- 
ticulate ; style thick shortly exserted, stigma large peltate ; 
caps, smooth turbinate short and thick. — Linn. Sp. 502 ; Lam. 
Diet. i. 479 ; Desf. i. 328; Pers. i. 421 ; Buch 193. no. 207 ; Spr. ii. 
195; DC. vii. 090; FI. Gr. t. 351 ; WB. iii. 13; Koch 548; 
Gren. et Godr. ii. 432; Willk. et Lange ii. 346. — Tr. or subarb. 
per. Mad. reg. 3 and upper part of 2, cc. Everywhere above 
1000 ft. where any native wood remains, but largest from 4000 
to 5500 ft. as on Pico Ruivo, in the Serra d’Agua, Boa Ventura, 
Paul da Serra (flanks of), Serra do Seixal, Cerca at S. Antonio 
da Serra, &c. where trees were commonly seen 20 or 30 years 
ago 30-50 ft. high with trunks 2-6 or even 7 ft. in circumfer- 
ence. March, Apr. — Varying from a tall shr. 6 or 8 ft. high to 
a tree of mostly 20-30 ft. with a distinct mostly straight and 
subcylindric trunk and pyramidally bushy head of a peculiarly 
dark gr. with erect straight virgate branches, naked below, end- 
ing in erect pyramidal leafy densely crowded tufts or fascicles of 
slender laterally flowering branchlets, clothed with a w. or hoary 
pubescence of which the longer stouter hairs are minutely 
feathered or echinulately liispidulous all round, with a shining 
silky lustre. Foliage densely crowded dark gr. somewhat soft 
or at least not harsh and rigid. L. linear ^-1 mill, broad, 4 or 
5-10 long obtuse quite smooth. FI. very numerous but small 
and inconspicuous, 3 mill, long, 2 broad, in little distinct ter- 
minal umbels or corymbose bunches of 3-5 together, pure w. or 
very rarely tinged with blush, fragrant like hawthorn, discharg- 
ing when the branches are abruptly struck or shaken clouds of 
w. or greyish pollen. Antli. with a short flat auriform or strap- 
shaped obtuse minutely subciliato-denticulate vertically pendent 
auricle rather than awn at their base of a light or deep pink col. 
Style smooth w. thick exserted 1 mill, beyond cor. Stigma gT. 
with a pink or red border or rim and 4 pink or red dots set cru- 
ciately in the middle. Caps. 2 mill, long, 1^ broad, truncate at 
top or turbinate. 
This has been perhaps one of the most generally serviceable 
of all the indigenous forest-growth of Madeira. The timber of 
the larger trees is extremely hard and tough, and useful for a 
groat variety of purposes — though, when sawn into planks, very 
liable to warp and split, which prevents its being much employed 
