ERICA mutabilis.
Reading edition
DESCRIPTIO.
Antheræ sub-exertæ, basi bicornes. Flores terminales, in umbellis irregularibus, plerumque horizontaliter siti. Pedunculi longissimi, capillares, colorati, glandulis tecti. Calyx lanceolatus, coloratus, glandulosus, adpressus. Corolla tubulosa, costata, leviter pilosa, imprimis saturate purpurea, denique pallidior. Folia terna, quaterna, ad basin plantæ quina, supra convexa, subtus sulcata, margine pilis longis obsita. Caulis fruticosus. Rami numerosi, erecto-patentes.
DESCRIPTION.
Tips just without the blossom, with two horns at their base. Flowers terminate the branches in irregular umbels, mostly in a horizontal direction. Footstalks very long, thread-shaped, coloured, and covered with glands. The empalement is lance-shaped, coloured, glandular, and pressed to the flower. Blossom tubular, ribbed, and slightly hairy, of a deep purple at first, and afterwards paler. Leaves by threes and fours, and towards the base of the plant they grow in fives, convex on their upper surface, and furrowed beneath, with long hairs on their margins. Stem shrubby. The branches are numerous, and between erect and spreading.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope. In bloom from February till October.
REFERENCE.
1. A leaf magnified. 2. Chives and pointal, one tip magnified. 3. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified. 4. The seed-bud magnified.
