developed in the mountains of eastern Asia, many species occurring on the Himalayas. Dabeocia, St Dabeoc’s heath, occurs in Ireland.
2. Arbutus Tribe.—Fruit a berry or capsule, petals deciduous and anthers with bristle-like appendages, chiefly north temperate to arctic in distribution. Arbutus Unedo, the strawberry-tree, so called from its large scarlet berry, is a southern European species which extends into south Ireland. Arctostaphylos (bearberry) and Andromeda are arctic and alpine genera occurring in Britain. Epigaea repens is the trailing arbutus or mayflower of Atlantic America.
3. Vaccinium Tribe.—Ovary inferior, fruit a berry. Extends from the north temperate zone to the mountains of the tropics. Vaccinium, the largest genus, has four British species: V. Myrtillus is the bilberry (q.v.), blaeberry or whortleberry, V. Vitis-Idaea the cowberry, and V. Oxycoccos the cranberry (q.v.). This tribe is sometimes regarded as a separate order Vacciniaceae, distinguished by its inferior ovary.
4. Erica Tribe.—Fruit usually a capsule, seeds round, not winged; corolla persisting round the ripe fruit; anthers often appendaged. The largest genus is Erica, the true heath (q.v.), with over 400 species, the great majority of which are confined to the Cape; others occur on the mountains of tropical Africa and in Europe and North Africa, especially the Mediterranean region. E. cinerea (purple heather) and E. Tetralix (cross-leaved heath) are common British heaths. Calluna is the ling or Scotch heather.
ERICHSEN, SIR JOHN ERIC, Bart. (1818–1896), British
surgeon, born on the 19th of July 1818 at Copenhagen, was the
son of Eric Erichsen, a member of a well-known Danish family.
He studied medicine at University College, London, and at
Paris, devoting himself in the early years of his career to
physiology, and lecturing on general anatomy and physiology
at University College hospital. In 1844 he was secretary to the
physiological section of the British Association, and in 1845 he
was awarded the Fothergillian gold medal of the Royal Humane
Society for his essay on asphyxia. In 1848 he was appointed
assistant surgeon at University College hospital, and in 1850
became full surgeon and professor of surgery, his lectures and
clinical teaching being much admired; and in 1875 he joined the
consulting staff. His Science and Art of Surgery (1853) went
through many editions. He rose to be president of the College of
Surgeons in 1880. From 1879 to 1881 he was president of the
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. He was created a
baronet in 1895, having been for some years surgeon-extraordinary
to Queen Victoria. As a surgeon his reputation was
world-wide, and he counts (says Sir W. MacCormac in his volume
on the Centenary of the Royal College of Surgeons) “among the
makers of modern surgery.” He was a recognized authority on
concussion of the spine, and was often called to give evidence
in court on obscure cases caused by railway accidents, &c. He
died at Folkestone on the 23rd of September 1896.
ERICHT, LOCH, a lake partly in Inverness-shire and partly in
Perthshire, Scotland, lying between the districts of Badenoch
on the N. and Rannoch on the S. The boundary line is drawn
from a point opposite to the mouth of the Alder, and follows
the centre of the longitudinal axis north-eastwards to 56° 50′
N., where it strikes eastwards to the shore. All of the lake to
the S. and E. of this line belongs to Perthshire, the rest, forming
the major portion, to Inverness-shire. It is a lonely lake, situated
in extremely wild surroundings at a height of 1153 ft. above
the sea, being thus the loftiest lake of large size in the United
Kingdom. It is over 1412 m. long, with a mean breadth of half
a mile and over 1 m. at its maximum. Its area amounts to some
714 sq. m., and it receives the drainage of an area of nearly 5012
sq. m. The mean depth is 189 ft., and the maximum 512 ft.
It has a general trend from N.E. to S.W., the head lying 1 m.
from Dalwhinnie station on the Highland railway. It receives
many streams, and discharges at the south-western extremity
by the Ericht. Salmon and trout afford good fishing. The
surrounding mountains are lofty and rugged. Ben Alder (3757
ft.) on the west shore is the chief feature of the great Corrour
deer forest. The only point of interest on the banks is the cavern,
near the mouth of the Alder, in which Prince Charles Edward
concealed himself for a time after the battle of Culloden.
ERICSSON, JOHN (1803–1889), Swedish-American naval
engineer, was born at Langbanshyttan, Wermland, Sweden, on
the 31st of July 1803. He was the second son of Olaf Ericsson,
an inspector of mines, who died in 1818. Showing from his
earliest years a strong mechanical bent, young Ericsson, at the
age of twelve, was employed as a draughtsman by the Swedish
Canal Company. From 1820 to 1827 he served in the army,
where his drawing and military maps attracted the attention
of the king, and he soon attained the rank of captain. In 1826
he went to London, at first on leave of absence from his regiment,
and in partnership with John Braithwaite constructed the
“Novelty,” a locomotive engine for the Liverpool & Manchester
railway competition at Rainhill in 1829, when the prize, however,
was won by Stephenson’s “Rocket.” The number of Ericsson’s
inventions at this period was very great. Among other things
he worked out a plan for marine engines placed entirely below
the water-line. Such engines were made for the “Victory,”
for Captain (afterwards Sir) John Ross’s voyage to the Arctic
regions in 1829, but they did not prove satisfactory. In 1833
his caloric engine was made public. In 1836 he took out a
patent for a screw-propeller, and though the priority of his
invention could not be maintained, he was afterwards awarded
a one-fifth share of the £20,000 given by the Admiralty for it.
At this time Captain Stockton, of the United States navy, gave
an order for a small iron vessel to be built by Laird of Birkenhead,
and to be fitted by Ericsson with engines and screw. This vessel
reached New York in May 1839. A few months later Ericsson
followed his steamer to New York, and there he resided for the
rest of his life, establishing himself as an engineer and a builder
of iron ships. In 1848 he was naturalized as a citizen of the
United States. He had many difficulties to contend with, and
it was only by slow degrees that he established his fame and won
his way to competence. At his death he seems to have been
worth about £50,000. The provision of defensive armour for
ships of war had long occupied his attention, and he had constructed
plans and a model of a vessel lying low in the water,
carrying one heavy gun in a circular turret mounted on a turntable.
In 1854 he sent his plans to the emperor of the French.
Louis Napoleon, however, acting probably on the advice of
Dupuy de Lôme, declined to use them. The American Civil
War, and the report that the Confederates were converting the
“Merrimac” into an ironclad, caused the navy department to
invite proposals for the construction of armoured ships. Among
others, Ericsson replied, and as it was thought that his design
might be serviceable in inland waters, the first armoured turret
ship, the “Monitor,” was ordered; she was launched on the
30th of January 1862, and on the 9th of March she fought the
celebrated action with the Confederate ram “Merrimac.” The
peculiar circumstances in which she was built, the great importance
of the battle, and the decisive nature of the result gave the
“Monitor” an exaggerated reputation, which further experience
did not confirm. In later years Ericsson devoted himself to the
study of torpedoes and sun motors. He published Solar Investigations
(New York, 1875) and Contributions to the Centennial
Exhibition (New York, 1877). He died in New York on the 8th
of March 1889, and in the following year, on the request of the
Swedish government, his body was sent to Stockholm and thence
into Wermland, where, at Filipstad, it was buried on the 15th
of September.
A Life of Ericsson by William Conant Church was published in New York in 1890 and in London in 1893.
ERIDANUS, or Fluvius (“the river”), in astronomy, a
constellation of the southern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus
(4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.); Ptolemy
catalogued 34 stars in it. θ Eridani, a fine double star of magnitudes
3.5 and 5.5, is now of the third magnitude. It is supposed
to be identical with the Achernar of Al-Sufi, who described it
as of the first magnitude; this star has therefore decreased in
brilliancy in historic times. The star ο2 Eridani (numbered 40
