Erica pageana L. Bolus

It is, perhaps, stretching the limits of this work somewhat unduly to include in it this heath – a native of the Cape of Good Hope – but there seems a likelihood that it may succeed in Cornwall where E. canaliculata (formerly known as “E. melanthera”) thrives so well. If that should prove to be the case, it will make a notable addition even to the Cornish garden flora. Its great charm is in bearing yellow flowers, a colour comparatively rare among heaths. I saw it at Caerhays in April 1930, where, growing in a sheltered sunny nook, a small plant gave a patch of colour as bright as a bit of double gorse. It seems first to have been noticed in Cape Town in 1904 when it was being offered for sale in the streets by a native flower-seller. Twenty years later it was exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley amongst the wonderful S. African plants brought there in cold storage. Latterly it has been found to be a native of Caledon, the great heath country of S. Africa. It was raised about 1921 at Kew from seed obtained from the National Botanic Garden at Kirstenbosch. At first thought to be a form of E. campanulata, it was made a species by Mrs L. Bolus, and its name perpetuates the memory of the late Miss Mary Page, botanical artist at Cape Town University.

An evergreen shrub probably 3 or 4 ft (perhaps more) high; young twigs downy. Leaves densely arranged in fours, linear, 1⁄6 to 1⁄4 in. long, faintly grooved with a thin sunken line beneath and generally of the ordinary heath type of plant. Flowers bell-shaped 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. long, 1⁄4 in. wide at the mouth, rich yellow, forming cylindrical clusters towards the ends of the branches; stamens included in the corolla; anthers dark brown. There are several membranous, ovate, ciliate bracts on the short flower-stalk. Bot. Mag., t. 9133.