DESCRIPTION.
Stem a foot and a half or two feet high, upright; branches few.
Leaves nearly by sixes, linear, blunt, spreading, and slightly curved; footstalks long.
Flowers grow near the ends of the branches in whorls, from the axillæ of the leaves, in a horizontal direction; peduncles short, and furnished with three floral leaves; blossom club-shaped, long, and slightly curved, red at the base, and yellow at the end; the leaflets of the cup are nearly ovate, and pressed to the blossom.
Seed-bud turban-shaped, furrowed, and furnished at the base with honey-bearing nectaries.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from the month of July till October.
REFERENCE.
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1. The Empalement. 2. A Chive with a tip magnified. 3. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified. 4. Flower of a slight variety. 5. Flower of a dull-coloured variety. 6. Flower of a dirty-coloured variety. |
The versatility that pervades this genus is particularly prominent in this species, which appears allied to the E. formosa, grandiflora, exsurgens, pinea, and also resembles in its general appearance many of that beautiful section of the Erica family well known by the specific appellation of vestita. Our figure was drawn, in the summer of 1807, from plants in the nursery of Mr. Rollinson. The flowers given with the dissections are mere florescent variations, no distinction being observable in the plants when out of bloom; we have therefore deemed it sufficient to represent only a flower of each of them.[Pg 83]