ERICA Linnæa superba.
Reading edition
CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.
Erica antheris muticis, inclusis: floribus pilosis, pellucidis: foliis quaternis: caule erecto, fruticoso.
DESCRIPTIO.
Caulis bipedalis, fruticosus, erectus: ramulis numerosis, brevibus, pilosis.
Folia quaterna, linearia, villis brevissimis, adscendentia.
Flores ramulos terminant, formantes spicam longam: corolla clavata, leviter curvata, unciali, pilosa, pellucida, ore albo inflata, ad basin cylindrica et purpurea: laciniis erecto-patentibus et revolutis.
Germen tiaræforme, sulcatum, ad basin nectariis melliferis instructum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret per menses Maii, Junii, et Julii.
REFERENTIA.
1. Folium lente auctum. 2. Calyx. 3. Stamen, anthera una lente aucta. 4. Germen et Pistillum, stigmate lente aucto. 5. Germen lente auctum.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Heath with beardless tips within the blossom: flowers hairy and transparent: leaves by fours: stem upright, and shrubby.
DESCRIPTION.
Stem two feet high, shrubby, upright: the smaller branches numerous, short, and hairy.
Leaves by fours, linear, with very short hairs, and ascending.
Flowers terminate the smaller branches, forming a long spike: blossom club-shaped, slightly curved, an inch long, hairy and transparent, white and swelled at the mouth, cylindrical and purple at the base: segments of the border between erect, spreading, and revolute.
Seed-bud turban-shaped, furrowed, and furnished at the base with honey-bearing nectaries.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers during the months of May, June, and July.
REFERENCE.
1. A Leaf magnified. 2. The Empalement. 3. A Chive, one tip magnified. 4. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified. 5. Seed-bud magnified.
This fine plant has ornamented various collections for the last five or six years. In growth it is luxuriant, as we have frequently seen it two feet high, with numerous long flowering branches, at Covent-Garden, amongst many of the most beautiful (if not most rare) Ericas, which are exclusively cultivated for that well-known emporium. It may certainly be considered as one of the finest variations of Erica Linnæa, and as such its hyperbolical specific title may serve to distinguish it from most of the varieties.
