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 mi¬ 
nutiae 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 pre¬ 
scribe, 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 intention is there¬ 
fore to figure (first) all the most elegant and desirable of the genus, including 
many very beautiful varieties, of recent introduction, that far surpass those from 
which they derive their name; reserving, as a dernier ressort, the most unin¬ 
teresting and least attractive, to subjoin at the termination of the genus, as 
necessary links in the chain of this extensive family. The great difficulty at¬ 
tending the cultivation of many of the species, so generally complained of, 
can only be surmounted by great care and attention to keep them from the 
partial damps and fogs so prevalent in this island. Among the most tender 
and difficult to preserve, and which require the most care, are the E. obbata, 
E. retorta, 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 secreted 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 approximation 
must certainly be most congenial. 
