HARMONISING BOTANICAL AND CULTIVAR CLASSIFICATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HARDY HEATHERS

Numerous varietal names have been published for heathers, notably in Calluna and Erica. Many of these are worthless, but many already represent potentially distinct groups of plants, under which certain cultivars could, or do, fit neatly. Examples are Calluna vulgaris f. clistanthes, f. diplocalyx, f. polysepala and f. multibracteata, all published by the Dutchman J. Jansen in 1935. To these many others were added by another Dutchman, Dr W. Beijerinck in 1937, making a valuable groundwork.

The problem however is to extend this and to find and discriminate between the names already in existence or needing publication, which will best accommodate all the hundreds of other cultivars. When such a millenium comes, it will make for greater precision in classification, in understanding the cultivars and in making it easier to key out an unknown one.