ERICA stellifera. 
CHARACTER SPECIFICUS. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Erica, antlieris muticis, inclusis: floribus subter- 
minalibus: foliis quaternis : ramis verticillatis. 
Heath, with beardless tips, within the blossom : 
flowers nearly terminal: leaves by fours: branches 
whorled. 
BESCR1PTIO. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Caulis pedalis et ultra: rami et ramuli verti- 
ciilati. 
Stem a foot or more high: the large and smaller 
branches grow in whorls. 
Folia quaterna, lanceolata, pilosa, patentia. 
LEAVEsbyfours, lance-shaped, hairy and spread¬ 
ing. 
Flores subtenninales, umbellati, erecti: pe- 
dunculi purpurei: calycis foliola lanceolata, basi 
bracteis binis oppositis instructa. 
Flowers nearly terminal, in umbels, upright: 
footstalks purple : leaflets of the cup are lance¬ 
shaped, and furnished at the base with two oppo¬ 
site floral leaves. 
Corolla inflata, ovata, apice arctata, incar- 
nata: limbo asquali, patente, plerumque sexfido, 
albido. 
Blossom of an inflated form, ovate, narrowed 
towards the end, and flesh-coloured : segments of 
the border equal, spreading, mostly six-cleft and 
white. 
Germen tiarasforme, sulcatum, ad basin necta- 
riis melliferis instructum. 
SEED-bud turban-shaped, furrowed, and fur¬ 
nished at the base with honey-bearing nectaries. 
Habitat ad Caput Bonas Spei. 
Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Floret a mense Martii in Augustum. 
Flowers from March till August. 
REFERENTIA. 
REFERENCE. 
1. Folium. 
2. Calyx lente auctus. 
3. Anthers etPistillum,aritbera unalenteaucta. 
4. Germen et Pistillum, stigmate lente aucto. 
5. Flos varietatis. 
1. A leaf. 
2. The Empalement magnified. 
3. Chives and Pointal, one tip magnified. 
4. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified. 
5. Flower of a variety. 
This Erica is supposed to have been raised from seed of E. venlricosa, or pregnans, and is called 
the star-flowered variety from the mouth of the flowers having six divisions, and the specific character 
of the genus being only four-cleft. There are one or two flowers that still remain unaltered, just suf¬ 
ficient to proclaim the metamorphosis not quite complete. There is also another seminal variety with six- 
cleft petals, and we have given a flower of it among the dissections; this variation, however, can 
in no other respect be distinguished from the old ventricose species: but the one our figure repre¬ 
sents differs in many other particulars, that well support its claim to a specific distinction. 
