ERICA mirabilis.
Reading edition
CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.
Erica, antheris muticis, inclusis: floribus sub-sessilibus, terminalibus: foliis quaternis: caulis fruticosus.
DESCRIPTIO.
Caulis pedalis: ramuli numerosi, erecto-patentes.
Folia quaterna, linearia, obtusa, glabra.
Flores subsessiles, terminates, fastigiati, quaterni: corolla ventricosa, imprimis alba, denique rosacea: ore arctato: laciniis cordatis, undulatis, expansis, maximis.
Germen tiaræforme, sulcatum, villosum, ad basin nectariis melliferis instructum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mense Junii ad Septembrem.
REFERENTIA.
1. Calyx. 2. Stamina a pistillo diducta, anthera una lente aucta. 3. Germen et pistillum stigmate lente aucto.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Heath, with beardless tips, within the blossom: flowers nearly sessile and terminal: leaves by fours: stem shrubby.
DESCRIPTION.
Stem a foot high: the smaller branches numerous, between erect and spreading.
Leaves by fours, linear, blunt and smooth.
Flowers nearly sessile, terminal, in bunches of four together: blossom swelled out, white at first, but dying off a rose-colour: narrowed at the mouth: segments of the border heart-shaped, waved, spreading and large.
Seed-bud turban-shaped, furrowed, hairy, and furnished at the base with honey-bearing nectaries.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from the month of June to September.
REFERENCE.
1. The Empalement. 2. The Chives and Pointal, one tip magnified. 3. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified.
The Erica mirabilis may be considered as an intermediate species between the Ericas Walkeria and Hyacinthoides, removed from each and yet allied to both. When in perfection, the inner segments of the blossoms are of a pure white, but on going off may justly be said to blush themselves out of bloom. Our figure was made from the nursery of Messrs. Rollinsons at Lower Tooting, in the summer of 1824.
