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.[Pg 243]