DISSERTATION continued. 
The unabating ardour that still prevails in the science of botany, 
and rather increases than diminishes, renders it almost impossible 
(from the extreme minutiae annexed to this elegant tribe) for the 
pencil of the artist to keep pace with the numerous importations 
from the Cape (at present the sole emporium of the genus Erica) : 
the limits of the genus it is impossible at present to prescribe, but 
by the termination of the next Volume we have no doubt of being 
able to ascertain, in some measure, its extent. The Author’s in¬ 
tention is therefore to figure (first) all the most elegant and desira¬ 
ble of the genus, including many very beautiful varieties, of re¬ 
cent introduction, that far surpass those from which they derive 
their name; reserving, as a dernier ressort, the most uninteresting 
and least attractive, to subjoin at the termination of the genus, as 
necessary links in the chain of this extensive family. The great 
difficulty attending the cultivation of many of the species, so ge¬ 
nerally complained of, can only be surmounted by great care and 
attention to keep them from the partial damps and fogs so preva¬ 
lent in this island. Among the most tender and difficult to pre¬ 
serve, and which require the most care, are the E. obbata, E. re¬ 
torta, E. ampullacea, E. Aitonia. E. Jasminiflora, E. vestita alba, 
and E. Massonia; the last of which is perhaps the most tender, 
owing most likely to the closeness of the leaves, joined with the 
soft hairs that surround them, which is a great encourager of se¬ 
creted damps: this, assisted by the great succulence that pervades 
the upper part of the plant, and its rather abrupt commencement 
from the wood, renders it so difficult to be preserved. They 
should by no means be intermixed with other plants, but kept in a 
house entirely appropriated to them, and so arranged that the air 
may have as free an egress and regress as possible to them all; as 
undoubtedly the mixing of them with plants whose foliage is so 
much larger, although it may produce a pleasing contrast, must 
exclude the free approach of the atmosphere, to which they are so 
much exposed in their native clime, and to which the nearest ap¬ 
proximation must certainly be most congenial. 
