ERICA undulata.
Reading edition
CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.
Erica muticis inclusis: floribus terminalibus: corollis ampullaceis: foliis ternis.
DESCRIPTIO.
Caulis fruticosus, pedalis: fruticosus rami virgati flexuosi.
Folia terna, linearia, brevia adscendentia verticillis, irregulariter confertis.
Flores ramulos terminant plerumque terni: corolla uncialis ampullacea, costata, undulata, rubra: oris laciniis recurvatis.
Germen tiaræforme, sulcatum, ad basin nectariis melliferis instructum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mense Maii in Julium.
REFERENTIA.
1. Folium. 2. Calyx. 3. Stamen, antherâ lente auctâ. 4. Germen et pistillum, stigmate lente aucto.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Heath, with beardless tips, within the blossom: flowers terminal: blossom flask-shaped: leaves by threes.
DESCRIPTION.
Stem shrubby, a foot high: shrubby branches, twiggy and flexuose.
Leaves by threes, linear, short and ascending, in irregular crowded whorles.
Flowers terminate the branches mostly by threes: blossom an inch long, flask-shaped, ribbed, waved, and red: segments of the border rolled back.
Seed-bud turban-shaped and furrowed, and furnished at the base with honey-bearing nectaries.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from the month of May till July.
REFERENCE.
1. A Leaf. 2. The Empalement. 3. A Chive, tip magnified. 4. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.
Our drawing of this singular species of Erica was made from a plant at the Nursery of Messrs. Rollinson, in the summer of 1828, said to be raised from seed of the E. translucens. Its contort flowers suggested a specific title, by which, in bloom, it could not fail to be recognised; the undulations continue the same from the early bud state, to the decay of the full-grown flower. The only Heath we ever met with of a similar and rather more contort character, was E. rugosa, (figured in Vol. 3,) which never ripened seed nor would propagate by cuttings, thus indicating an abortive novelty on which Nature reluctantly conferred the power of vegetation.
