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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Erica mackaiana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
This heath has been regarded by many authorities as a variety of E. tetralix or a hybrid between it and E. ciliaris, but is now accepted as an authentic species. It is about 1 ft high, with its leaves in whorls of four, ovate-oblong, the margins less recurved than in E. tetralix; and thus apparently broader; usually glabrous above. The flowers are in terminal umbels as in E. tetralix-, the corolla of a deeper rosy red, shorter and broader. Seed-vessel comparatively glabrous (it is downy in E. tetralix). The only homes of this heath in the British Isles are near Roundstone (Co. Galway), where it was discovered by W. M’Alla in 1833, and in W. Donegal. It is also found in N.W. Spain, where it is equally rare and local. A pretty dwarf heath, useful for planting in broad patches as recommended for its allies.
[E. × praegeri] – From a reversion shoot on ‘Stuartii’ which occurred in a Dutch nursery, it has been established that this clone has the same parentage as E. × praegeri, i.e., E. mackaiana × E. tetralix. However, ‘Stuartii’ was given botanical status by E. F. Linton ten years before the publication of the name E. × praegeri, and thus E. × stuartii E. F. Linton becomes the valid name for hybrids between E. mackaiana and E. tetralix. The clone ‘Stuartii’ has been renamed ‘Charles Stuart’ and the original clone of E. × praegeri becomes E. × stuartii ‘Connemara’.