When one volume is completed, every necessary requisite for binding [Pg 5][Pg 4]will be given.
A SHORT DISSERTATION.
This beautiful and extended tribe of plants, at present so much admired and cultivated in our British Gardens, is but of recent introduction, at least the major part of them, as antecedent to the year 1772 the few species then known were the E. vulgaris, E. Tetralix, E. cinerea, and E. vagans, natives; the E. DabÅ“cii, from Ireland; the E. arborea from Madeira in 1748; the E. herbacea or carnea in 1763 from Switzerland; the E. mediterranea in 1765 from Minorca; the E. scoparia, E. viridi-purpurea, E. australis, E. ciliaris, and E. umbellata, from Portugal, between the years 1768 and 1707. The two other European species we possess, the E. stricta, and E. multiflora, natives of Spain, have been but 14 years in cultivation with us; and the African species found within the district of the Cape of Good Hope and the adjacent territory, which have swelled the Genus to so great an extent, and by the extreme brilliance of their flowers have contributed so much to the present splendour of our green-houses, were unknown to our English botanists, but by name, till the above æra. In the year 1772 seeds of two species were sent from the Cape.—Both vegetated. The first was the E. tubiflora of the Sp. Plant. of Linnæus, the other the E. concinna. In 1774 the superb collection at Kew was enriched by nearly 20 species sent by Mr. F. Masson, His Majesty’s collector at the Cape, for which we refer to the 2nd vol. of the Catalogue of that garden. From this period, till within these few years, the accession has been so rapid, so many different collectors producing new species, that it would be only a list of names to enumerate them, and no way illustrate the present sub[Pg 6]ject; nor would it be any way relevant to the subject, to know how many were enumerated by Petiver, Plukenet, Hermann, Oldenland, Ray, &c. &c. as, before Linnæus had by his mode of classification determined the precise limits of the Genus, the confusion that then pervaded all the elder botanists is such, that any comment from them would rather perplex than elucidate. Therefore, beginning with the Systema Naturæ of Linnæus, vol. ii. of 1767, including the European species, he there enumerates but 42; and Dahlgren, in 1770, edited a dissertation (under his inspection) on the Genus, containing a catalogue of 58 names from Bergius, the Mantissa, &c. Thunberg, on his return from Africa, added 13 to the number, all of which were inserted in the Supplementum Plantarum of 1781. From this and some other sources Murray has in his Syst. Veg. of 1784 made a list of 74 names, and Martyn in his edition of Miller’s Dictionary, 1795, enumerates but 84. Willdenow, collating from all the foregoing, &c., has mounted the list to 137 in his Species Plantarum. This is certainly far short of the number at present cultivated in Britain; and from the variety of beautiful new specimens and seeds lately received by G. Hibbert, Esq. from his collector at the Cape, many of which have vegetated and are in high perfection at the Clapham Gardens, we may fairly conjecture that the Genus is by no means bounded by the species we at present possess.[Pg 7]
MODE OF CULTURE.
Very few, if any, of the species, but have been increased by cuttings. The only method we shall therefore treat of is this, and by seeds. The process for making and planting the cuttings is as follows: Let a middle-sized pot be prepared by filling it within three inches of the margin with small broken potsherds, or some such matter, that there may be a constant and ready drain for the water, which it will be necessary to give the cuttings at any time when the earth appears dry. Then, consulting the Index, take a sufficient quantity of sandy loam, sandy peat, or common sand, or a mixture of any of them, finely sifted, to fill the pot up to the margin, and press it lightly with the hand. Thus prepared, it is fit to receive the cuttings. These must be taken about an inch long, or shorter, from the smallest and tenderest shoots, cutting off the leaves two-thirds of the length, close to the shoot. When a few are thus made ready, take a small pointed piece of wood and dibble them into the pot; fixing the lower end of the cutting as firm as possible. When the pot is filled with them at about half an inch distance each way, cover them with a small bell-glass, to fit as near as possible. Then place it under a large hand-glass, or frame, where it must be kept from the stronger rays of the sun till the cuttings are rooted. Soon after the small bell-glass must be[Pg 8] first removed, and in a week they may be exposed to the open air in the shade of a north wall, or, in winter, in the shady part of the green-house, to protect them from the sun and winds till they are removed into separate pots. The seeds of some species which ripen in this country, as well as those procured from the Cape, may be sown about the middle of March, in pots prepared the same way as for the cuttings; with this exception, that the earth be invariably sandy peat finely sifted. The seeds should be very slightly covered, and watered with a pot whose rose or head should only admit the water like a light dew, lest the seeds be all washed together. The smallest pots that can be procured are the best for transplanting. The earth in which most Heaths thrive best is a soft, loose, sandy peat.[Pg 9]
ERICA acuta.
DESCRIPTIO.
Antheræ cristatæ, inclusæ. Flores in apice omnium ramulorum, terni, cernui. Corolla urceolata, purpurea, nitida. Folia quaterna, subulata, mucronata, glabra, erecta. Caulis erectus, pedalis, gracilis. Rami pauci; ramuli numerosi, brevi, erecti.