NATURAL ORDER ERICE.E. 
359 
contrived a more apposite fable. Andromeda is represented by 
them as a virgin of most exquisite and unrivalled charms ; but these 
charms remain in perfection only so long as she retains her virgin 
purity. The same is also applicable to the plant now preparing to 
celebrate its nuptials. This plant is always fixed on some little 
turfy hillock, in the midst of the swamps, as Andromeda herself was 
chained to a rock in the sea, which bathed her feet, as the fresh wa¬ 
ter does the roots of the plant. Dragons and venomous serpents 
surrounded her, as toads and other reptiles frequent the abode of her 
vegetable resembler, and, when they pair in the spring, throw mud 
and water over its leaves and branches. As the distressed virgin 
cast down her blushing face through excessive affliction, so does the 
rosy-coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and paler till it 
withers away.” “At length,” says he in his Flora Lapponica, 
“ comes Perseus in the shape of summer, dries up the surrounding- 
water, and destroys the monsters, rendering the damsel a fruitful 
mother, who then carries her head (the Capsule) erect,” 
The greater part of the species are hardy, and require to be grown 
more or less in a damp shady situation, for those species, which do 
not naturally grow in hogs, chiefly inhabit the mountains, where the 
air is considerably moister than in the plains. They thrive best in 
sandy peat, and are generally increased by lay ers, although some 
few, as the A. arborea, &c. bear plenty of seeds, and others as A. 
Catesbaei, axillaris, and axillaris longifolia, throw up abundance of 
suckers. The seeds should be sown in pots or in a frame, and be very 
thinly covered with soil, in consequence of the smallness of the seeds. 
When about an inch high, plant them out thinly, either in pots or 
on a bed, which must be covered to prevent them from being dashed 
with wet. When they are large enough, plant them in the open 
ground, which should always be done in spring, or the frosts and 
worms sometimes throw them quite out of the ground during winter. 
The A. tetragona, and hypnoides, should be sheltered during winter, 
either in a pit or frame or by a hand-glass, and mats should be pla¬ 
ced over them on the border, so as to preserve them from the severity 
of the weather. The A. japonica, ovalifolia, and sinensis, should be 
kept in pots, and preserved in the greenhouse during winter. They 
might be plunged in a shady border in May, and taken in again in 
October. The A. jamaicensis, fasciculata, buxifolia, and rubiginosa, 
are stove plants, but may be set out of doors in summer, or plunged 
after the same manner as the last. They are increased by cuttings, 
taken off when young, and planted in sand under a bell-glass. 
Brossrca, (in honour of G. do la Brosse, physician to Louis XIII.) 
