REFERENCE.
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1. Empalement. 2. A Chive, summit magnified. 3. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified. 4. Seed-bud magnified. 5. Flower of a monstrous variety. |
This delicate-flowered Heath was raised at the Hammersmith Nursery in the summer of 1820, under the specific title of E. costata, superba (said to be raised from the seed of the E. costata). There were two plants of it that flowered: one tall, the other short and bushy. We preferred the tall one, being the finest and most in flower, but have given a flower from the other plant, which differed a little in shape, and had also two blossoms on it, like the one represented, a kind of monstrosity that sometimes occurs. Upon dissecting the other, we found all the anthers surmounted by the appearance of an increasing petal, and they seemed to have been produced solely at the expense of their fertility, as the absence of the pollen was all the difference we could discern, neither the shape nor colour having suffered any alteration.
