Erica Cerinthoides

The Erica cerinthoides is one of the most magnificent and shewy of the genus, grows wild at the Cape, from whence it was introduced to the royal garden at Kew, by Mr. Masson, in 1774, it is the more valuable, as it flowers during most of the year its blossoms are found to vary from a deep to a very pale red. It is a hardy green house plant, and usually propagated by cuttings.To have this beautiful tribe of plants in perfection, they must be kept in pots proportioned to their size, filled with that kind of bog earth in which our British heaths grow spontaneously, finely sifted, to which it may be necessary sometimes to add a third part of the mould of rotten leaves, or choice loam, partaking more of a clayey than a sandy nature we must be careful not to let them suffer for want of water in dry hot weather, as such an omission, even for one day, may be fatal, and to give them as much air as possible at all times when the weather is mild.