of other gentlemen residing in Cornwall; and Mr. Dillwyn
has been so obliging as to communicate two other stations
for the plant, which have been long known to Sir Charles
Lemon; namely, “ on a heath at Carclew, near Penryn,
abundantly, and also on a heath in the parish of St. Agnes,
in the north-west of the county.” Upon the Continent, it
inhabits the southern parts of France, but is most frequent
in Spain and Portugal.
It grows a foot or more high, and has the leaves quater-
nate as well as ternate, ovate, plane above, their margins
reflexed, beautifully fringed with white, rather long, hairs,
each tipped with a gland ; the under-side is glaucous, and
marked with a strong green, not glaucous, midrib. The
flowers are large, showy, of a most beautiful purple, unquestionably
the most beautiful of our native species, and one that
will bear comparison with many of our choicest cultivated
species from the Cape. In habit, in the large secund flowers,
and in the comparative breadth and disposition of the leaves,
this Heath bears considerable affinity with the Menziesia
polifolia : and Mr. Tozer has remarked to me that 11 the capsule
has 8 furrows, one at each filament, and 4 cells, the
partition double, being formed of the indexed margin of the
valves, and that the seeds are affixed to a large 4-lobed
central column, as is described in English Flora as characteristic
o f Menziesia: '—This is perfectly correct. There are
in reality 8 valves, or 4 pairs, each pair having their inner
margins indexed and reaching to the receptacle, so as to
form 4 double (not simple) partitions. The dehiscence, how.
ever, does not here take place at these indexed margins of
the valves, or very imperfectly if it does, though they are
there easily separated, but opposite to the middle of each cell
and reaching about half way down from above. Thus, this
plant agrees with Smith’s character of Erica in having the
partitions from the centre of each of the 4 (double) valves;
but differs in the partition being double. A similar structure
is probably frequent in Erica, only that, in general, the
introflexed margins are more closely united. This seems to
correspond very nearly with what Mr. Brown says of Andromeda
calyculata, “ Cujus capsula primum ad medium
dehiscit in valvis 5 medio septiferis, mox autem septorum
lamellis longitudinaliter solutis in 5 cocculos bifidos smpe
disrumpitur.” Prodr. p. 558. W. J. H.