THE HEATHERY; OR A MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS ERICA: CONTAINING COLOURED ENGRAVINGS, WITH LATIN AND ENGLISH DESCRIPTIONS, DISSECTIONS, ETC. OF ALL THE KNOWN SPECIES OF THAT EXTENSIVE AND DISTINGUISHED TRIBE OF PLANTS. BY H. C. ANDREWS. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. II. SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED AND ENLARGED. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1845. DISSERTATION continued. The unabating ardour that still prevails in the science of botany, and rather increases than diminishes, renders it almost impossible (from the extreme minutiæ annexed to this elegant tribe) for the pencil of the artist to keep pace with the numerous importations from the Cape (at present the sole emporium of the genus Erica): the limits of the genus it is impossible at present to prescribe, but by the termination of the next Volume we have no doubt of being able to ascertain, in some measure, its extent. The Author’s intention is therefore to figure (first) all the most elegant and desirable of the genus, including many very beautiful varieties, of recent introduction, that far surpass those from which they derive their name; reserving, as a dernier ressort, the most uninteresting and least attractive, to subjoin at the termination of the genus, as necessary links in the chain of this extensive family. The great difficulty attending the cultivation of many of the species, so generally complained of, can only be surmounted by great care and attention to keep them from the partial damps and fogs so prevalent in this island. Among the most tender and difficult to preserve, and which require the most care are the E. obbata, E. retorta, E. ampullacea, E. Aitonia., E. Jasminiflora, E. vestita alba, and E. Massonia; the last of which is perhaps the most tender, owing most likely to the closeness of the leaves, joined with the soft hairs that surround them, which is a great encourager of secreted damps: this, assisted by the great succulence that pervades the upper part of the plant, and its rather abrupt commencement from the wood, renders it so difficult to be preserved. They should by no means be intermixed with other plants, but kept in a house entirely appropriated to them, and so arranged that the air may have as free an egress and regress as possible to them all; as undoubtedly the mixing of them with plants whose foliage is so much larger, although it may produce a pleasing contrast, must exclude the