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Erica multiflora L.

Modern name

Erica multiflora L.

A low shrub 1 to 212 ft high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves 14 to 12 in. long, linear, almost cylindrical, slightly downy at the base, arranged in fours or fives. Flowers clustered in the leaf-axils as in E. vagans, forming an erect, cylindrical, terminal raceme, 2 or 3 in. long. Corolla pale rose, pitcher-shaped, 316 in. long; anthers oblong, protruding, each anther with its two cells (loculi) separated only slightly at the top; sepals lance-shaped, not quite half as long as the corolla; flower-stalk 12 in. long, holding the flower clear of the leaves.

Native of S. Europe; introduced in 1731. This heath is very rare in gardens, a form of E. vagans being usually made to do duty for it. The two have been much confused by botanists, but E. multiflora is easily distinguished by the anthers being only slightly notched at the top, whereas in E. vagans the anther-cells are free from one another right to the base; the sepals also are longer and narrower than in E. vagans.


Genus

Erica

Other species in the genus