It is aleohol which gives to wines their intoxicating quality. annin gives them roughness. This roughness is corrected by many finings, which withdraws a portion of the tannin in combination with the albumen or gelatine employed. The acids are acetic acid and the tartaric acid of potassium, or cream of tartar, which give to wine its tartness; and this acidity is corrected by adding a suitable’ quantity of neutral tartrate of potash, which forms with the acetate of potash and bitartrate of potash a salt + imperfectly soluble, which deposits itself in great part in a crystallised state. As the cream of tartar is gradually deposited in the tuns or in bottles, it follows that the wines in time lose much of their acidity. In aging they lose also much of their colouring matter and take the tint which is called pelure d& Oignon in France. The Prrrosporacem are chiefly trees or shrubs of Australia, Africa, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, China, Japan, and the adjacent islands. The berries of Billardiera mutabilis are eatable; the fruit is green and cylindrical, becoming a pale amber colour when ripe. The Olacacew, trees or shrubs, often spiny, are a small order consisting of tropical or hardy tropical shrubs of the East Indies, New Holland, and Africa, with one of the West Indies, and a few of the Cape of Good Hope. The Cyrillacee are evergreen shrubs, with simple non-stipulate leaves, all inhabitants of North Ameriea, and of little general interest. The Evpryats haye been formed into a group of which Mr. Myers has published a monograph. They consist of Icaci-nacee, evergreen trees and shrubs, formerly confounded with Olacacee, from which however they differ in the calyx being and never enlarging with the always small, persistent, unchanging, with the petals alternate always of the fruit; the stamens growth never-opposite; flowers symmetrical, articulated on their pedicels; consolidated carpels, and axile placentw. The group consists evergreen trees and shrubs, natives of tropical or nearly tropical and Australia. chiefly Africa, the East Indies, America, countries,

ERIcETALS. Hypogynous exogens, with dichlamydeous flowers, symmetrical in the ovary, placents axile, stamens definite, embryo enclosed in copious fleshy albumen, stamens sometimes adhering to the corolla. Eighty-nine genera, one thousand two hundred and fifteen species, including Andromeda, dangerously acrid; Ledum, Kalmia, and Azalea, narcotic and dangerous; Rhododendron,.oily and narcotic; Arbutus, fruit narcotic, bark and leaves astringent.

_ Exogenous trees and shrubs, with polypetalous flowers, in terminal ubs; perfect monodelphous stamens; two-celledsignenpa CLXIV. Humiriaces. “ilong membranous connective; leaves alternate, simple, wi

eeds Ww: a ing longitudinally:lees peoohenrag weualy's ed, their base sometimess overlapping and half sheathing the Fiaso snous exogens, rarely undershrubs, with stems round, naked, et leafy ini the oo aring species; half monopetalous flowers in ter- Taal racemes or solit ary;the stamens sinceand perfect; loose-skinned f album. Steralees he Semes exogens,« with cauor pinnated igika a padCig tateage€ stems, with polypetalous flowers; the stamens free, @, half scale-like, and — times bag number of the"petals: minute emtryoen atthebase ofa y album: All the known species

Sao.exogen _ a wing on the roots of other trees, the stems bain colourless, without leleaves, but covered with scales, saving halfmWemeasat.cepa

Soa— in terminal spikes or racemes; free stamens, elibertetts men; dehic « pe, seeds; and an embryo at the apex of the albu-tt Pwr hi an se and the position of the embryo distinguishes Fi oe eemenoUsSplale orders, with evergreen leaves, entire, whor Ot opposite anthers, sti de es rigid, monopetalous flowers, free definite CLXIX. Ericacez. a all“ope Fransgprni or tight-skinned seeds, andand two-celled opening byy pores.

Ertcera plants, from eouxw, “I break,” have dichlamydeous flow:ers, symmetrical in ie: ovary, axile placenta, definite stamens, : andembryo enclosed in a large fleshy albumen;having polypetalous : owers in Humiriacew and Francoaces, monopetalous in Epa-erids and Ericacese, and half monopetalous in Pyrolaces and Monotropacen. : The Humrrrace® are trees or shrubs yielding a balsamic juice, 2 allnatives of the tropical parts of America. The balsam yielded DY Humirium floribundum is a yellow liquid, called Balsam of = Unix, resembling Copaiva and Balsam of Peru. _Epacrrpace, from em, “upon,” and axgoc, “ the top,”i : ce to its habitat on hill tops, are small trees and eee Temarkable for the great beauty of their flowers and the singular Structure of their leaves, which are alternate, rarely opposite, EE

stalked, and sometimes entire or serrated, dilated at their base, overlapping each other and half sheathing their stem, without a midrib, but with veins radiating from the base. The flowers, generally monopetalous, are white or purple, borne in spikes or terminal racemes; but not unfrequently the corolla is divided, giving them a polypetalous appearance. All the fruit-bearing section, such as the Australian Cranberries (Lissanthe sapida), are esculent, but the seeds are large and the pulpy covering too thin to be available for food. The Tasmanian Cranberry (Astroloma humifusum) is found all over that colony; the fruit, generally greenish white in hue, is sometimes slightly red, and about the size of a Black Currant, consisting of a viscid pulp, apple-flavoured, and enclosing a large seed. It grows singly on a trailing stem. The native Currant (Leucopodium Richet) is a large, densely foliaged shrub, growing on the sea-coast to the height of seven feet; the berries small, white, and of a herby flavour. A French naturalist, named Riche, who accompanied the expedition in search of La Perouse, was lost for three days on the south coast of Australia, and supported himself chiefly _ upon the berries of this plant.

The genus Epacris scarcely differ from the small-leaved genera of Ericetals either in habit or character, except that in the former the anthers are two-celled. Dr. Brown was the founder of the order, and his reason was that the family of the Ericacez is NOW so vast that it seems to constitute a class rather than an order. “2 may therefore,” he says, “be allowed to propose another order, _ upon the it depends although which is truly natural, Epacridee, single character of the unusual simplicity of the anthers—a character, however, which is of the greater value as being opposed to the two-celled anthers of Erices, which are generally divided and furnished with appendages. The propriety of the measure 18 moreover confirmed, not only by the number of Epacridee, large as it is, but also by their geographical position, for all, as far as we know them at present, are inhabitants of Australia and Poly-nesia—countries in which not more than one or two species © Ericez are found.” The Pyrolacee, Francoacee, and Monotropacee, though placed by botanists among the group of Heaths, differ very widely from

The Ericace® or Heaths (Fig. 410), are small trees, shrubs, or under-shrubs, with rigid evergreen leaves, whorled or opposite, and without stipules. Some few species are natives of Europe; several of the genera, such as the Heaths, Lings, Azaleas, Andromeda,

and Arbutus, having representatives in the British Flora. But the country of the Heaths is the Cape of Good Hope, where immens® tracts of country are covered with them. rica cinerea and Calluna vulgaris abound in central France, and round Paris. The Tree Heath (Erica arborea) belongs to the region of the Mediterranean, overshading all other Heaths by its height, which sometimes reaches to sixteen or eighteen feet. Its flowers are nume-_ tous, and their sweet odour diffuses itself to a great distance. The Broom Heath (Erica scoparia), which is found in the North, West, and South, takes its name from the humble use to which it is applied; it grows in woods, and in sterile and uncultivated lands. The Heaths have regular flowers; the calyx is monosepalous, and divided into four parts, the separation being generally slight; the corolla varies in form, globulous or pitcher-shape, to tubular, bell, or rather patera-shaped, presenting four - lobes alternating with the divisions of the _ alyx. The corolla does not, as is usual, _ tarry the eight stamens which compose the andreeceum; these are inserted upon the re- _ Ceptacle. The pistil is composed of a superior Ovary surmounted by a very erect style, and _ 4stigma in the form of acup. The ovary is and in the internal angle of the four-celled, - Placenta the fruit is placed, charged with _ ‘hatropal ovules. The fruit is capsular, open- _ lg dorsally. The seeds are oval, reticulated, having an erect embryo in a fleshy albumen. se Along with the,Epacrids and Heaths, are _ Tanged the Azaleas, Kalmias, and Rhodo-

| dendrons, producing flowers unequalled for

a their beauty in the whole vegetable world. 2 richness of colouring, elegance and vaniety of form, delicacy of texture, and Fig. 410.—Heath blossom. minute microscopic perfection. corolla, the Heaths stand oe EE

unrivalled. Even the wild Moorland Heath of our mountains, although ranking among the lowliest of their race, are, for their beauty, objects worthy of the closest examination. In the Northern parts of the island, Heather or Ling (Calluna vulgaris), mingling with other species, cover vast tracts of country, mingling their hues of purple, red, and pink, with the most’ brilliant effect. A cultivated variety of this species, with double flowers, is extremely beautiful, and the flowers of Zrica carnea are the earliest harbingers of spring.:

The Strawberry-tree (Arbutus unedo), whose ripe red fruit of the past year is borne at Christmas-time on the same branch which supports the drooping panicled cluster of flowers of the present, is one of the most agreeable objects in nature.

The trailing Azalea procumbens of the Scottish mountains, with leafy branches, tortuous stem, and small elliptical leaves with revolute margins, five-parted purple calyx, and bell-shaped:orolla, is a pleasing object on the hill-side; but in the Western hemisphere, ranging from Canada to Georgia, it is a shrub three to twenty feet high, and of exquisite beauty, mingling its foliage with the shrubby leaves of A. vircora, green on both sides, and fringed at the edge with deliciously fragrant whitish tubular flowers, or, from New York to Virginia, with the small dark- green shining leaves of A. nitida, hairy on the midrib and the margin, and reddish-white tubular flowers. The American species seem to culminate in A. arborescens, described by Pursch as a beautiful species rising from ten to — twenty feet, which grows on rivulets near the Blue Mountains, forming with its elegant foliage and large abundant Pennsylvania, rose-coloured flowers, the finest ornamental ‘shrub with which he was acquainted. f The Indian and Chinese Azaleas (A. sinensis) approach nearer to the Rhododendrons, having downy leaves, flowers with silky petals, leaves glaucous underneath, bell-shaped corolla with segments broadly ovate, wavy, and the upper one dotted after the manner of the Rhododendron. A. Indica again, forms a bush two to six feet high, with drooping branches, leaves deep brownish green, and half evergreen, with large showy and_brilliantly-marked flowers. oe

But these native plants sink into insignificance when co! pared = with the gorgeous specimens which are produced in hundreds —

at our flower shows; pyramids, domes, and clusters are there presented, with flowers of every hue, in such profusion as to be almost oppressive, and one sighs for a glimpse of native heath as a relief from theg picture, though it should be but a hill-side covered with Calluna eulgaris. Rhododendrons differ from Heaths chiefly in having ten instead of five stamens, in the bell-shaped corolla, and in the foliage being hard and evergreen. The first of the species introduced seems to have been from Asia Minor, whence R. ponticum was obtained; but the species introduced from the Sikhan Himalayas, excel all others in beauty, and variety of form and colour. The various Species are too well known to justify our entering on further description here. The Kalmias are evergreen shrubs, with a small five-leaved calyx, cup-shaped corolla with angular open limb, and a five-celled and many-seeded capsule;when in blossom their elegant striated petals give them a beautiful appearance, but they are said to be-poisonous. K. latifolia yields a nectarous juice eagerly sought after by bees and wasps, but the honey secreted from the juice is said to be Poisonous; and the juice which exudes from the flowers is said to have dangerously intoxicating properties.

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