HARDY HEATHS. 
83 
Blooming in December. 
GypsocaUis earned. Height § foot : pink. 
The following species of Cape Heath, as 
well as many others, will, according to Mr. 
M'Nab, endure in the open air seven or eight 
degrees of frost (Fahrenheit's scale) without 
suffering in any way, provided the situation be 
dry, and the soil properly drained. Planted 
on a sheltered border near a wall, appropriated 
to half-hardy plants, they may be expected to 
succeed to satisfaction. 
Erica act oca. 2 feet: May & June; purple. 
Erica acuminata. 1 § foot : July to October ; 
red. 
Erica aggrcgata. f foot: July; purple. 
Erica campanulata. 1 loot : April to August ; 
yellow. 
Erica comosa. f foot : April lo August ; red. 
Erica conferta. 1 J foot : February to Oc- 
tober ; white. 
Erica congesta. 1 foot : June and July ; white. 
Erica cruenta. 2 feet : May to September; 
dark red. 
Erica cupressinu. 1 foot : April to June ; 
pale red. 
Erica curvijiura. 2 feet : July and October ; 
yellow. 
Erica, diaphana. 1 }-, foot : June and July ; pink. 
Erica exudans. 1 J foot: October and No- 
vember ; red. 
Erica ferruginea 1 foot: May to July; red. 
Erica (/Inborn. 1| foot : July to September ; 
pink. 
Erica gracilis. | foot : February to June ; 
purple. 
Erica grand! flora. 3 feet: May to Septem- 
ber ; yellow. 
Erica hyacinthoides. 1 foot : June to August ; 
pink. 
Ulrica ignescens. l\ foot: March to June; red. 
Erica inlertexta. ljfoot: June and July; 
yellow. 
Erica leitcanthcra. jj foot: Juno to May; white. 
Erica longipedunculata. 1 foot : July and 
August; pink. 
Erica lurida. 1 foot: April to June; pink. 
Erica mammosa. 2 feet: July to October; 
purple. 
Erica margaritacea. If foot : May to Sep- 
tember; white. 
Erica nigrita. J foot : March to June ; white. 
Erica pendiila. 1J foot: June to August; 
purple. 
Erica jwrlata. 1 foot : March to August ; 
purple. 
Erica pubescens. 1.' foot : February to De- 
cember ; purple. 
Erica rament area. If foot: June to De- 
cember ; dark red. 
Erica setacea. If foot: February to April; 
white. 
Erica tenuiflora. 11 foot: April to June; 
light yellow. 
Erica trifiora. 1 -J foot: March to June; white. 
Erica ventricosa. 1 foot : April to September; 
flesh colour. 
Erica verlicillata. 3 feet : July to October ; 
scarlet. 
Erica virescens. 1 foot : January to June; 
greenish. 
Besides these, there are doubtless many 
others possessing a considerable degree of 
hardiness. In fact, the whole family scarcely 
ever require lire-heat to be applied to them : 
they are ju.-t the sort of plants to introduce 
into those plain glass portable erections, which 
we may now expect to become common. 
CULTIVATION AND PROPAGATION. 
Tue culture of the hardy Heaths may he 
assimilated with that of what are generally 
called American plants ; for like these they 
thrive best in a soil composed chiefly of peat- 
earth ; and if they are situated in a position 
where the soil will be kept both cool and 
moist during summer, without being subjected 
to excess of wet in the winter, their success 
will be the more certain and complete. These 
two features may be regarded as the leading 
principles of their cultivation. 
Wherever a bed of peat-earth exists, there 
the Heaths may be introduced ; and if the 
situation is generally suitable for plants of 
this particular class, the Heaths will also 
flourish. Generally speaking, their small size 
particularly adapts them to such situations as 
the margins of large clumps where a miscel- 
laneous collection is planted ; and indeed, from 
the smallness and particular character of their 
foliage, they require to be brought forward, 
or they become overpowered by the broad and 
ample leaves of such shrubs as rhododendrons, 
&c. AVhere, however, the space can be af- 
forded, they are better planted in a group by 
themselves; and an extension of the same 
principle, so far as to plant each kind in a lied 
by itself where space can be afforded, will, on 
the whole, be found to be the most pleasing. 
When collected together in groups, whether it 
be of individual kinds, or as a miscellaneous 
collection, they appear to harmonize better, 
than when mixed with other shrubs: their 
needle-like foliage does not, by any means, 
accord with the broader and more expansive 
leaves which most other shrubs possess. 
An assemblage of the hardy kinds of Heaths 
separate from any other plants, constitute an 
hardy Ericctum. or Heathery: when the differ- 
ent kinds are brought together, within the 
scope of one bed or clump, they form a hardy 
Ericetum on a very limited scale; but w lien a 
greater number of small beds are brought 
together, each being filled with a particular 
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