236 
THE FLORIST'S JOURNAL. 
Horticultural Essays, 
By the Members of the Regent's Park Gardeners' Society. 
ERICA; ITS MANAGEMENT AND CULTURE. 
By Mr. C. Moore. 
Among the numerous families which compose the vegetable 
kingdom, few surpass the Ericacece in the variety and beauty of 
their flowers; and especially their long continuance in the 
flowering state. The geographical distribution of Erica is con¬ 
fined to Europe and Africa, but extends to the most northern 
point of the former, and to the most southern of the latter; the 
most easterly point to which they extend is the Mauritius, 
where some of Salisbury’s genus, Salaxis, are found. The 
Linnaean genus Erica has been subdivided into 22 genera, 
by Don; but who, it would appear, considered it only as an at¬ 
tempt to elucidate their characters more clearly, as will be 
found by a quotation from his own work on the subject: — “ As 
happens in other natural families, the characters of the general 
groups of Ericacece are not so strongly marked as in those 
that are less so ; but we are not on that account to give up the 
idea of dividing them, and to retain four or five hundred species 
in one genus, as has been done in the case of Erica , which 
we have attempted to subdivide into a number of minor groups ; 
and, whatever opinion may be formed of their title and rank as 
separate genera, the arrangement of the species will, we trust, 
be found more natural than any hitherto proposed.” Thus it will 
be seen that he questioned the propriety of what he had done. 
De Candolle, in his celebrated Prodromus, has adopted two or 
three of Don’s genera, but has retained the greater number of 
the species under the original genus Erica , which, however, he 
separates into four sub-genera, including forty-nine sectional 
divisions: this answers the same purpose, and is by far the 
easiest and most preferable system. Having thus briefly stated 
some facts connected with the history of the Heath, we will 
now enter on its propagation and culture. To render the sub^ 
