LEAVES in the smaller branches grow by threes, and are ascending: in the large branches they grow by fours and fives, and bend downwards on the lower part of the plant: they are convex on their upper surface, and furrowed beneath, with long hairs on their margins: some of them shorter and glandular: footstalks glandular. FLOWERS terminate the branches in irregular umbels mostly in a horizontal direction: footstalks very long, thread-shaped, and coloured, covered with glands, and furnished with three floral leaves, also glandular. EMPALEMENT. Cup four-leaved; leaflets lance-shaped, furrowed, coloured, glandular, and pressed to the blossom. BLOSSOM tubular, ribbed, and slightly haired, of a deep purple at first, and afterwards paler. CHIVES. Eight hair-like threads; tips two-horned, and just without the blossom. POINTAL. Seed-bud turban-shaped, and furrowed. Shaft thread-shaped. Summit four-cornered. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. Flowers from February till October. REFERENCE. 1. A Leaf magnified. 2. The Empalement magnified. 3. A Flower. 4. The Chives detached from the Pointal, one tip magnified. 5. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified. 6. Seed-bud magnified. [Illustration] ERICA nitida. CHARACTER SPECIFICUS. ERICA, antheris cristatis, inclusis; corollis crystallinis, albidis, nitidis; foliis ternis, linearibus, obtusis. DESCRIPTIO. CAULIS fruticosus, sesquipedalis, erectus; ramulis numerosis. FOLIA terna, obtusa, linearia, subtus sulcata, erecto-patentia. FLORES in ramulis terminales, umbellati, terni vel quini, cernui; pedunculi breves, bracteis tribus calyciformibus, adpressis. CALYX tetraphyllus; foliolis spathulatis, patentibus, viscosis, adpressis. COROLLA ovata, inflata, crystallina, alba, nitida, magnitudine pisi; laciniis revolutis. STAMINA. Filamenta octo, capillaria; antheræ cristatæ, inclusæ. PISTILLUM. Germen tiaræforme, sulcatum, pilosum. Stylus sub-exsertus. Stigma tetragonum. Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei. Floret a mense Julii in Octobrem. REFERENTIA. 1. Folium auctum. 2. Calyx lente auctus. 3. Corolla. 4. Stamina et Pistillum, antherâ unicâ lente auctâ. 5. Germen et Pistillum, stigmate lente aucto. 6. Germen lente auctum. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. HEATH, with crested tips, within the blossom, of a crystalline white, and shining; leaves by threes, linear, and obtuse. DESCRIPTION. STEM shrubby, a foot and a half high, upright; with numerous small branches. LEAVES by threes, obtuse, linear, furrowed beneath, and between erect and spreading. FLOWERS terminate the small branches in umbels of from three to five, and nodding; footstalks short, with three floral leaves of the shape of the cup, and pressed to it. EMPALEMENT. Cup four-leaved; the leaflets are spathula-shaped, spreading, clammy, and pressed to the blossom. BLOSSOM egg-shaped, and swelled out, of a crystalline white, shining, and of the size of a pea; the segments of the border are reflexed.