Native of the Cape of Good Hope. Flowers from August, till December. REFERENCE. 1. The Empalement, and Blossom. 2. The Empalement, magnified. 3. The Chives detached from the Pointal; one tip magnified. 4. The Seed-bud, Shaft, and Summit, magnified. [Illustration] A SHORT DISSERTATION, &c. Antecedent to the year 1772, the few species of this, now so numerous Genus, known in our British gardens, were, the E. vulgaris, E. Tetralix, E. cineria and E. vagans natives; the E. Dabœcii, from Ireland; the E. arborea introduced in 1748, from Madeira; the E. herbacea or carnea in 1763, from Switzerland; the E. mediterranea in 1765, from Minorca, and 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 twelve years in cultivation with us. Of 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 which, but as an echo to the general voice, may be said to contribute, by the extreme brilliancy of the flowers of these species, more than any other, to the present splendor of our green-houses, were unknown, till the above æra, to our English botanists, but by name. In the year 1771 seeds of two species were received, at the Hammersmith nursery, from the Cape, both of them vegetated; the first which flowered, proving the E. tubiflora, of the Sp. Plant. of Linnæus; the other, from the resemblance it bears to the Spruce Fir, was then named E. abietina; but since, altered in the Kew catalogue, to E. concinna. Two years subsequent, 1774, Mr. Francis Masson, botanical collector to His Majesty at the Cape, laid the foundation for the celebrity of that superb collection at Kew, which for many years, with unrivalled lustre, far outshone all others, particularly by the number and variety of this most beautiful tribe of plants: for which we refer to the second Vol. of the catalogue of that garden; where the E. curviflora, E. lutea, E. cruenta, E. persoluta, E. baccans, E. marifolia, E. abietina, E. corifolia, E. paniculata, E. empetrifolia, E. spumosa, E. capitata, E. conspicua, E. cerinthoides, E. viscaria, E. Plukenetii, E. Petiveri, and E. petiolata, are all stated to have been of that year’s introduction. From this period, till within these few years, the accession was so rapid, that it would be difficult, nay nearly impracticable, to ascertain the precise date when most of the remaining species were introduced; as many different collectors were about this time, or shortly after, producing in their collections new species to which they each claimed the honour of