ERICA stellifera.
Reading edition
CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.
Erica, antheris muticis, inclusis: floribus subterminalibus: foliis quaternis: ramis verticillatis.
DESCRIPTIO.
Caulis pedalis et ultra: rami et ramuli verticillati.
Folia quaterna, lanceolata, pilosa, patentia.
Flores subterminales, umbellati, erecti: pedunculi purpurei: calycis foliola lanceolata, basi bracteis binis oppositis instructa.
Corolla inflata, ovata, apice arctata, incarnata: limbo æquali, patente, plerumque sexfido, albido.
Germen tiaræforme, sulcatum, ad basin nectariis melliferis instructum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mense Martii in Augustum.
REFERENTIA.
1. Folium. 2. Calyx lente auctus. 3. Antheræ et Pistillum, anthera una lente aucta. 4. Germen et Pistillum, stigmate lente aucto. 5. Flos varietatis.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Heath, with beardless tips, within the blossom: flowers nearly terminal: leaves by fours: branches whorled.
DESCRIPTION.
Stem a foot or more high: the large and smaller branches grow in whorls.
Leaves by fours, lance-shaped, hairy and spreading.
Flowers nearly terminal, in umbels, upright: footstalks purple: leaflets of the cup are lance-shaped, and furnished at the base with two opposite floral leaves.
Blossom of an inflated form, ovate, narrowed towards the end, and flesh-coloured: segments of the border equal, spreading, mostly six-cleft and white.
Seed-bud turban-shaped, furrowed, and furnished at the base with honey-bearing nectaries.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from March till August.
REFERENCE.
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. ventricosa, 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 sufficient 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 represents differs in many other particulars, that well support its claim to a specific distinction.
