Future Energy Options from a Systems

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Future Energy Options
from a Systems
Perspective

Nick King
Aled Jones
Future Energy Options from a Systems Perspective
 Nick King · Aled Jones

Future Energy
Options
from a Systems
Perspective
Nick King Aled Jones
Global Sustainability Institute Global Sustainability Institute
Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University
Cambridge, UK Cambridge, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-46447-8 ISBN 978-3-031-46448-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46448-5

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 To my dad Richard, whose inspirational interest in science, the natural
world and our impact upon it, provided me with the desire to try to better
understand our predicament.
—Nick King
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
Energy as a Critical Phenomenon 2
Phases of Human Energy Use Through Time 3
References 25
2 The Trifurcation of Energy Futures 33
The Fossil-Seneca Branch 34
The Continued Growth Branch 48
The Stabilisation Branch 64
References 80
3 Conclusions 99
Fossil Fuel Systemic Inertia 102
Longer Term Perspectives 105
References 106

Index 109

vii
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Fossil-Seneca Branch—illustration of system behaviour

(Notes y-axis represent energy usage and the x-axis
time units; all units are arbitrary and for the purpose
of illustration of mode of system behaviour only. Energy
usage is the metric applied to demonstrate collapse
of human system function, but other measures [e.g.,
human population] could be used to demonstrate
the effect as well) 47
Fig. 2.2 Continued growth branch—illustration of system behaviour
(Notes y-axis represent energy usage and the x-axis
time units; all units are arbitrary and for the purpose
of illustration of mode of system behaviour only.
The gradient of the line at different points in time
and the energy consumption levels attained are illustrative
only) 52
Fig. 2.3 Renewables Stabilisation Branch—illustration of system
behaviour (Notes y-axis represent energy usage
and the x-axis time units; all units are arbitrary
and for the purpose of illustration of mode of system
behaviour only. The gradient of the line at different points
in time and the energy consumption levels attained are
illustrative only. The ‘Energy Input’ level is illustrative
and is not representative of any physical values) 67

ix
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Abstract Exosomatic (non-metabolic) energy is a phenomenon unique

to humans, and in recent timeframes has become a fundamental underpin-
ning for the continued operation of technological civilisation. A number
of different energy sources have been used by humans over time (fire;
agriculture and animal metabolic power; natural energy flows, whale oil
and human slavery; fossil fuels; and renewables and nuclear energy), a
trend which has been characterised by successions and interdependence
and steered by factors such as geography, portability, return on invest-
ment and complexity. Each energy succession has brought about varied
societal changes, but the flourishing of the use of fossil fuels has resulted
in the most profound changes to human society. An ‘energy bind’ has
emerged from the reliance of complex global society on energy to func-
tion, but growing constraints to energy (particularly fossil fuel) availability
is leading to growing risks, labelled collectively as the ‘polycrisis’.

Keywords Endosomatic energy · Exosomatic energy · Energy bind ·

Energy successions · Great Acceleration · Energy Return on Investment ·
Complexity · Superorganism

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
N. King and A. Jones, Future Energy Options from a Systems Perspective,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46448-5_1
2 N. KING AND A. JONES

Energy as a Critical Phenomenon

Global civilisation in the early twenty-first century faces a multitude of
severe, accumulating, converging, and interacting systemic challenges,
labelled collectively as the ‘polycrisis’ [1–3]. One of the most significant
manifestations of this confluence of natural and anthropogenic threats and
hazards is the ‘Water–Energy–Food Nexus ’ (WEF nexus). This concept
links three of the systems and commodities which are most critical to the
functioning of human societies, describes how they are likely to be subject
to constraints and challenges, and encompasses their multi-faceted inter-
dependence, and as such reaches into the heart of the complexity of the
polycrisis [4–6].
The provision of food and water are biological imperatives for the day
to day survival of humans and other heterotrophic organisms, and failures
in the steady and accessible supply of these commodities threatens both
the stability of societies and the survival of those who inhabit them [7].
Energy differs fundamentally from food and water in that it has different
forms and applications which relate to human necessity via complex mech-
anisms. Endosomatic energy is the energy obtained by humans from the
consumption of food and which is made available via cellular metabolism
and directed to use via biological systems, such as muscle power and
cognition and has been the primary source at the disposal of humans
for most of history. Exosomatic energy by contrast is the energy available
in systems outside of direct human metabolism, which is commandeered
and directed via human intelligence, and although this has been in use
in some forms through most of human history, it has only started to be
used by humans at scale relatively recently [8].
Endosomatic energy is a fundamental factor in survival and is directly
linked to the availability and consumption of food, whereas exosomatic
energy is not directly required for survival in the biological sense and is
instead a technological ‘add-on’ to human energy use. However, exoso-
matic energy has, in recent timeframes, become a fundamental basis for
the creation, expansion, maintenance and complexification of a global
spanning, technological civilisation, and therefore increasingly vital to
human survival. This is because the systems which underpin civilisation,
such as agriculture and water supply, have become increasingly large-scale,
technological, and dependent on energy inputs to function. Therefore,
the provision of food and water has (particularly in recent timeframes)
become highly dependent on exosomatic energy inputs, having previously
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

been provided in sufficient quantities by natural systems (or with only

limited exosomatic energy input) [9].
Collective humanity has created a paradigm in which exosomatic
energy, which is otherwise a technological artefact unique to humans
rather than a crucial factor in survival, has become critical through its
progressively close interlinking with the provision of food and energy.
Human civilisation is a globe-spanning enterprise comprising eight billion
inhabitants, and is now reliant on the provision of continuous supplies
of exosomatic energy to drive crucial technologies and systems which
together permit large human populations and organised societies to func-
tion and persist. This is partly through the provision of food and water
(via energetically-driven production and distribution) in quantities suffi-
cient to support populations of these magnitudes, but also in driving the
other complex anthropogenic systems (separate or only indirectly linked
to water and food) which operate in parallel and maintain the functions
of civilisation, including the collation of knowledge. As such, energy has
become, in modern timeframes, a critical factor and ‘enabler’ for virtually
all aspects of human civilisation. Due to this ‘keystone’ role, exosomatic
energy will likely be the fundamental factor in the shape of human civil-
isation in the future; as the challenges of the ‘polycrisis’ accumulate,
collective humanity will increasingly find itself in an ‘energy bind’ which
will make the selection of particular energy ‘futures’ ever more of an
imperative. This book explores this ‘energy bind’, and outlines the large-
scale, systemic energy pathways which likely lie before collective humanity,
and what each of their implications are.

Phases of Human Energy Use Through Time

This section outlines the different phases of energy use by humans.
Over time the forms of energy and the means by which they have been
obtained, harnessed and applied, has undergone a number of transitions
which have led to changes in the energy types and technologies which
have predominated. The following subsections provide a chronological
description of each of these phases and the various factors which led to
the emergence of each new paradigm.
4 N. KING AND A. JONES

Taming of Fire
The emergence of exosomatic energy1 generation and use occurred prior
to the evolution of anatomically modern humans, approximately one and
a half million years ago. Global climatic changes (a general global cooling
trend likely linked to changing atmospheric CO2 levels) starting in the
late Miocene (approximately five–seven million years ago) gave rise to
generally rising aridity and seasonality, resulting in global changes to
terrestrial ecosystems. In tropical East Africa, ecosystem changes mani-
fested as a transition of the predominant vegetation cover from dense
moist tropical forest to drier, more open savannah [10]. This transition
resulted in changes to animal biota, and for tree-dwelling ape species in
the region, this became a key factor in the evolution of more preferentially
ground-dwelling hominids. In parallel, this drier environment experi-
enced a greater prevalence of natural (primarily lightning-instigated) fires,
which inevitably led hominid encounters with these natural fires on a
more frequent basis. This likely led to a process of increasingly direct
interaction and use, and eventually the capability to start fires inde-
pendently and artificially (using deliberately-collected biomass, primarily
wood, and culturally-transmitted techniques). The growing prevalence of
the phenomenon from approximately one and a half million years ago is
evidenced through widespread archaeological evidence of burning asso-
ciated with hominid sites, and from approximately 400 to 700 thousand
years ago, the appearance of hearths indicating increasingly refined use of
fire.
Control of (biomass-fuelled) fire (‘pyrotechnology’) is likely to have
had a significant influence on the evolution of modern humans through
factors such as reduced mortality by predation, increased general activity
through ‘daylight extension’, and greater access to nutrients from the
cooking of food (which functions as a form of ‘pre-digestion’), all of
which may have contributed to the evolution of larger brains and subse-
quent phenomena such as language and increased sociality. The enhancing
feedbacks of fire’s benefits and widening use likely led to human society
re-organising over time to make this type of energy use a central and
permanent aspect of daily life, and which laid the foundation for later,
larger scale and more sophisticated applications of fire (such as land
clearing and metalworking) [11, 12].

1 ‘Energy’ will refer hereafter to exosomatic energy unless otherwise stated.

 1 INTRODUCTION 5

Agriculture and Animal Metabolic Power

The Agricultural Revolution (also described as the Neolithic Revolu-
tion) describes the emergence of organised agriculture, consisting of the
planned and regular cultivation of particular plant species to provide food
crops, combined with animal husbandry for food and other applications,
with these activities taking place within particular, fixed geographical
areas. The predominant mode of obtaining food amongst different
human groups shifted over time, generating a gradual transition from
hunting and gathering towards agriculture (and in parallel, pastoralism),
with a likely significant overlap between the two before agriculture
emerged as the pre-eminent mode for the overwhelming proportion of
the population (from that period onwards), due to an accumulation of
self-reinforcing advantages. This phenomenon emerged simultaneously
in at least seven (and possibly more) separate locations globally starting
approximately twelve thousand years ago, where conditions (including,
but not limited to, climate and soil conditions, the composition of the
biome, and human population density) were favourable.
It is likely that complex interplays of drivers motivated different groups
of humans to adopt agriculture as a primary mode of living (including,
but not limited to, changing global climatic conditions, over-hunting
of local megafauna, and desire for more predictable and resilient food
supplies), but what is clearer than these remote motivations is the
profound impact on virtually every aspect of human lifestyle and society
that the Agricultural Revolution had. Most fundamentally, the provision
of stable and eventually surplus food supplies from agriculture allowed
the overall human population to grow in a sustained manner. This in turn
allowed the development of new phenomena including, but not limited
to: fixed sedentary settlements in proximity to agriculturally produc-
tive land; social hierarchies and religions in response to rising urban
populations and consequent new social dynamics; militaries to defend
stored food surpluses/acquire new surpluses; money and trade to mediate
exchange and control of surpluses; application of fire to enable new metal
and ceramic technologies; and a range of other phenomena that have
continued into the modern era [13–17].
This energy transition phase differs from the other revolutions, tech-
nologies and systems described in the following subsections in that it
was a systemic change in the broad scale strategies applied by human
groups to increase the total quantity and the stability of the food supply.
6 N. KING AND A. JONES

Therefore, it was largely an effort to increase the amount of endosomatic

energy available to humans. However, one aspect of the new behaviours
and technologies which emerged in the Agricultural Revolution, namely
animal husbandry, did represent a hitherto unused form of exosomatic
energy. Specifically, this was the controlled use of animal metabolism (the
muscle power of particular domesticated animal species such as cattle)
under human direction for tasks which couldn’t otherwise be achieved
such as the pulling of ploughs (human metabolic power alone was gener-
ally insufficient and fire-derived energy could not be directed to the
required applications with the technologies available at the time) [18].
Furthermore, the human population growth enabled by the Agricultural
Revolution provided the basis for later (exosomatic) energy revolutions;
therefore, this phase represented a complex interplay of factors which
were in aggregate highly significant for overall human energy use.

Natural Energy Flows, Whale Oil and Human Slavery

The fixed settlements, expanding populations, technological advance-
ments and existing energy sources (primarily pyrotechnology) enabled by
the spread of agriculture allowed various human societies to conceive,
build and spread mechanisms and structures that opened new energy
paradigms. These new mechanisms permitted the utilisation of the regular
natural kinetic energy flows contained in environmental media (namely
water and air) via direct conversion to mechanical power, for a range
of applications. From approximately five thousand years ago, geograph-
ically widespread groups and societies started utilising waterwheels on
rivers to drive simple machines which required steady power input, for
example grindstones for grain milling, bellows for metallurgical furnaces,
and for the processing of cloth. Windmills were pioneered and subse-
quently spread across many regions from approximately one thousand
years ago and their spread was more rapid than for waterwheels as they
offered the key advantage in that wind energy resources were much more
widely distributed and therefore available for use by a greater proportion
of the population.
The exploitation of wind power proliferated significantly in Europe
between approximately the eleventh and nineteenth centuries, widening
to applications such as pumping of water and the mass processing of
commodities such as foodstuffs, textiles, paper, and timber. The total
number of windmills in Europe peaked at approximately two hundred
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

thousand in approximately 1900; the growth to this peak coincided with

the emergence of concentrated zones of the collection and application of
wind energy, exemplified by the Zaan District (in the modern day Nether-
lands) during the seventeenth–eighteenth centuries. Approximately one
thousand windmills powered co-ordinated, large-scale industrial activity,
with the intensive processing of timber being a focus of the wind-powered
technologies pioneered there. The exploitation of these energy flows
became a permanent feature of many societies due to their ‘free at point
of use’ nature, along with the productivity gains and freeing up of human
labour they provided [19, 20].
Another significant source of energy which was exploited at scale in
parallel to natural energy flows was biomass from hunted cetaceans, specif-
ically ‘whale oil’ (obtained indirectly from the rendering of blubber tissue
from several different whale species) and ‘sperm oil’ (obtained directly
as an oily liquid from Sperm whales). The primary energetic applica-
tion for whale oil was as a lighting fuel, for which it was used all over
the world (alongside non-energetic uses such as for base for detergent
and a machinery lubricant) through the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The hunting of whales for meat and other products dates
back to antiquity but whaling to supply commercial demands (primarily
to supply whale oil for inexpensive urban lighting) originated in the
Middle Ages and peaked in approximately the 1850s. The growth in
demand for whale oil, combined with declining whale populations and
technological advancement meant that there was a progression through
preferred species (Right to Bowhead to Sperm), though demand eventu-
ally dropped off significantly following development of coal gasification
and (‘rock’) oil extraction. Note that whaling continued following the
decline in lighting oil demand (to supply food and other products), and
did not peak until the 1960s, at which point changes in international law
and extreme whale population depletion finally brought this practice to
an (almost) end [21, 22].
Another energy paradigm which grew and peaked on approximately
similar timescales to the exploitation of natural energy flows and whale
oil was human slavey, which is defined as the treatment of human beings
as owned commodities such that their metabolism can be controlled and
directed for tasks against their will. More specifically, this involved the
commandeering of human endosomatic energy as exosomatic energy by
other humans, primarily for tasks such as agricultural and construction
labour. Although this egregious and highly exploitative practice has likely
8 N. KING AND A. JONES

been a feature of organised human societies since the Agricultural Revo-

lution (and potentially earlier), and trade in and use of mass numbers
of human slaves is linked with societies as varied as the Roman Empire,
the Vikings and the Barbary States, the period and location in which the
most intense trade occurred was in the Trans-Atlantic region (between
Europe, Africa and the Americas) from the sixteenth–nineteenth centuries
(the three centuries preceding the Industrial Revolution). An estimated
twelve million people were enslaved and traded during that timeframe
and provided a large proportion of the energy which underpinned the
physical and economic development of the Americas and the Caribbean
[23, 24], and by extension Europe and other regions globally.

Fossil Fuels and Industrialisation

The next revolution in human energy appropriation and application has
been the most profound and far reaching in human history to date,
namely the exploitation of the energy stored within lithospheric fossil
carbon deposits (fossil fuels). The extent and scale of the use of these
fuels over time has been highly nonlinear, but application for mass indus-
trial purposes (starting with the Industrial Revolution and intensifying in
recent timeframes), has been the most impactful. Fossil fuels in various
forms were known to and underwent limited use by societies through
antiquity, but these uses remained relatively niche (primarily due to lack of
technology suitable and necessary for their mass exploitation, combined
with a lack of understanding of their potential) until particular contexts
and events set in motion events that led to the flourishing of their use,
and consequent transformations of societies at global scale.
The first ‘stage’ of this new energy paradigm took place on the island
of Great Britain; during the centuries preceding the Industrial Revolu-
tion biomass (primarily in the form of wood and charcoal) had been the
primary fuel for ‘pyrotechnology’ applications such as simple industrial
processes (e.g., lime kilns), and for space heating in large population
centres. Growing constraints on the availability of this biomass over
time (from the sixteenth century onwards, largely due to deforestation),
combined with changes in land ownership, drove the increasing domestic
and industrial use of coal. This fuel had been in use previously at small
scale in more niche roles, but its relative expense and the smoke produced
by its use had led to biomass being preferentially used.
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

Great Britain was endowed with large reserves of high quality (i.e.,
high carbon and energy content) coal, with several large and rela-
tively accessible (near-surface) coalfields distributed across the island. This
endowment of resources, combined with growing demand from the inno-
vation of coal-fired, steam-driven machinery (primarily for applications
including mechanical production of commodities and for sea and land
transport), set in motion enhancing feedbacks. These included widening
applications (larger and improved steam engines), increasing coal mining
activity (opening of new coalfields and mines), expanding infrastruc-
ture (canals and railways to transport coal), technological innovations
(groundwater pumps to open up previously inaccessible reserves) and a
shifting cultural setting (migration to urban areas) which drove steadily
increasing penetration of coal use into society at large over the course
of several decades. This process culminated with an acceleration, expan-
sion and embedding of these technological and social trends during the
approximate period 1750–1800, which marked the start of the Industrial
Revolution. These industrial applications, along with others such as coal
gasification which expanded rapidly for urban lighting and heating appli-
cations, rapidly spread to other parts of the world where coal resources
were also abundant (e.g., Germany and the USA) or could be accessed
through importation.
The second ‘stage’ in the flourishing of fossil fuel use started in
Pennsylvania in the northeastern US, where exploratory drilling was
undertaken during the late 1850s to assess whether ‘rock’ (or ‘mineral’)
oil known to be present in the subsurface could be practically extracted.
These near surface reservoirs had previously been known about due to
abundant natural ground seepages, but the wider context was the strong
incentive to find a practical replacement to whale oil, the supply of which
was increasingly subject to the effects of depletion. Successful drilling of
wells led to the development of the world’s first full-scale oilfield during
the 1850–1860s, and different fractions of the ‘rock’ oil obtained were
successful in replacing whale oil (for lighting). However, it was several
subsequent technological innovations (primarily in the form of the inven-
tion of the Otto and Diesel cycle internal combustion engines) which set
in motion enhancing feedbacks (equivalent to those that drove the earlier
flourishing of coal use) which led thereafter to a continuous, decades-
long global spread and scaling of oil extraction and use which accelerated
at the major inflection points of the World Wars [25]. In contemporary
timeframes oil (primarily diesel) fuel underpins global-spanning (road, rail
10 N. KING AND A. JONES

and sea-based) logistical and supply chains which now move a greater
tonnage of material annually than natural processes (e.g., erosion and
fluvial transport) [26, 27].
Natural gas emerged during the twentieth century as the third ‘stage’
of the flourishing of fossil fuel. Natural gas forms from the ‘cracking’ of
long-chain hydrocarbon molecules by lithospheric heat and pressure and
is therefore closely associated with crude oil. In the early stages of oil
extraction natural gas was primary vented or flared, but from approx-
imately 1900 an increasing proportion was captured for use, initially
to displace gasified coal for lighting, but later for an expanding range
of uses. A significant application which emerged from approximately
the mid-twentieth century onwards was as the main energetic feed-
stock underpinning the industrial-scale use of Haber–Bosch process (for
synthetic fertiliser production), which drove a sustained global agricul-
tural intensification in the late twentieth century [28]), which in turn
underpinned exponential human population growth (at which point fossil
energy became a key input to the generation of human biomass). Natural
gas also became a widespread source of industrial heat (e.g., for cement
manufacturing and metallurgy) from the late twentieth century onwards,
alongside a number of additional, primarily domestic applications (for
space and water heating, cooking etc.) which emerged in densely popu-
lated regions where urban gas distribution networks were economical to
build and operate.
A major technological innovation which emerged in the late nineteenth
century and subsequently drove a large proportion of fossil fuel consump-
tion through the twentieth and into the early twenty-first centuries was
electrification; fossil-fired thermal generation of electrical power has been
the consistent and universal user of all three major forms of fossil fuel
(though in contemporary timeframes coal and natural gas have emerged
as the dominant fuels for power generation, and oil for most modes of
transport). The range of hitherto impossible applications and technolo-
gies which conversion of fossil chemical energy to electrical power enabled
was vast, and the efficiency and flexibility gains which all forms of elec-
trical technology enabled in industrial and domestic settings provided the
basis for whole new paradigms in the consumption and use of fossil fuels
[29].
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

From these initially slow and semi-accidental beginnings over several

centuries, use of all types of fossil fuels’ energy content2 grew expo-
nentially over the twentieth century and in contemporary timeframes
it dominates global energy usage (contributing 82% of global primary
energy use in 2021) [30, 31]. The flourishing of fossil fuel use and
the Industrial Revolution which these fuels underpinned marked a true
systemic change in human energy usage, as exploitation of this huge
energy reserve enabled the start of the large-scale and organised appli-
cation of energy for purposes in addition to food production. Natural
energy flows that had started to be captured prior to the Industrial Revo-
lution were largely (though not only) applied to support food produc-
tion, but with the emergence of fossil-fuelled industrial production new
phenomena such as mass-produced commodities, consumerism, sustained
economic growth and mass mobility emerged as major phenomena and
drivers in the dynamics and growth of human civilisation.

Nuclear and Renewables

Fossil fuels continue to dominate the total energy consumption of global
civilisation, but in recent decades two additional, broad classes of energy
technology have been developed and put into use in widespread loca-
tions around the world and make significant overall contributions to total
energy use. The first of these, renewable energy, involves technologies
and systems which extract energy from natural flows in a similar manner
to those historical technologies described above. Two of the types of
modern renewable energy technology (wind and hydroelectric power) are
direct ‘descendants’ of the technologies employed in previous centuries in
terms of their general principle of operation but employ modern engi-
neering materials and convert the natural energy flows into electricity
instead of mechanical power. In addition to these historically-exploited
energy sources, modern technologies and materials have allowed addi-
tional natural gradients to be exploited at scale (for electricity and also

2 Fossil fuels also provide the material substrate for commodities vital to the functioning
of modern civilisation such as plastics, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals, but are omitted
from consideration due to these comprising non-energy uses.
12 N. KING AND A. JONES

applications such as space heating); namely ocean waves, tidal flows,3

geothermal heat, and solar radiation.
Geothermal energy harnesses the thermal gradient between the Earth’s
interior and the surface; the temperature varies from approximately
5000 °C in the core regions to several hundred °C in the upper mantle,
primarily as a result of persisting primordial and ongoing radiogenic heat.
The heat flux at the Earth’s surface is generally very low but in tectoni-
cally/volcanically active regions (and certain other geological settings) the
localised flux can be much higher. Human societies have been aware of
geothermal energy since antiquity (primarily in the form of hot springs)
but it is only with modern technologies that this has been exploitable for
controlled power production (also for space heating to a lesser extent).
Solar power, which harnesses the energy of solar radiation directly,
was not possible historically due to the absence of certain materials and
capabilities not available until the modern era (though it was previously
applied for niche applications such as directed seawater evaporation and
drying of materials including food) but can now be exploited at indus-
trial scale wherever incident solar radiation is available (though latitudinal
and climatic constraints apply to the total amount of energy which can be
collected at different locations globally).
Renewables of all forms have grown significantly in term of installed
capacity, global distribution and penetration into national and regional
power grids in recent decades. This is a phenomenon which has been
driven by factors such as growing awareness and concerns amongst
governments, private companies and the public over greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions and their accumulation in the atmosphere as a result of
fossil fuel use, and the reducing costs of renewables generation enabled
by technological advancements, economies of scale and government poli-
cies and subsidies. As with the development and spread of fossil fuel
technologies, modern renewables technologies have developed through
successive phases in accordance with complex societal and economic
factors, and certain technologies (hydroelectric, wind and solar, and to
lesser extent geothermal) have emerged as dominant in terms of overall
output. Modern renewables, especially onshore wind technologies, are
now the cheapest form of electricity generation in the world in most
regions.

3 Tidal and wave energy are not considered further due to their slow growth in capacity
and current minor contribution to global energy supplies.
 1 INTRODUCTION 13

The first of the modern renewables technologies to undergo large

scale development was hydroelectric power; the inception of this tech-
nology occurred in the mid-nineteenth century when the Francis turbine
was developed. Following periods of strong growth in capacity glob-
ally during the 1940–1970s and 2000–2020s, hydroelectric plants now
have the largest installed renewable energy capacity by a large margin
(including the largest single power plant in the world, the Three Gorges
Dam, at 22.5 GW capacity) [32]. Hydroelectricity dominated renewables
capacity for multiple decades prior to the development of modern wind
energy during the 1980s, and which has since undergone very strong
growth from the start of the twenty-first century onwards. Global on-
and off-shore wind capacity has undergone an approximate two order of
magnitude increase during that period, with offshore capacity and increas-
ingly large individual turbines making growing proportional contributions
with time [33]. Onshore renewable capacity growth has often been
curtailed by policy considerations (where there has been a perception that
communities do not want large turbines located near their homes) rather
than technological ones.
Geothermal energy is produced through three main technologies/
approaches (dry steam, flash steam and binary cycle power), and have
deployed at increasing scale since the start of the twenty-first century,
though deployment is concentrated in regions and countries with
conducive geological conditions (notably the USA, Indonesia, Iceland
and New Zealand) [34].
Solar energy is harnessed through two different approaches: photo-
voltaic (PV) systems, which use (primarily) silicon-based semiconductor
cells and panels to directly generate electricity via the photoelectric
effect; and concentrated solar power (CSP), in which reflectors or lenses
are used to concentrate solar radiation onto a receiver to raise steam
and generate electricity via turbines. PV has largely overtaken CSP as
the preferred solar technology and has experienced very large capacity
increases since the start of the twenty-first century (solar has experienced
growth rates second only to wind) [35]. This growth has often been
driven by government policy, such as feed-in-tariffs, which offer incen-
tives for domestic installations and large scale rural deployment especially
in countries including Germany, coupled with large investments in manu-
facturing in countries including China bringing down the costs of solar
exponentially.
14 N. KING AND A. JONES

The second of these energy sources, nuclear power, utilises the energy
stored within heavy nuclei (actinides), which is released via artificially
induced and controlled nuclear reactions. Due to the advanced scien-
tific understanding that underpins its exploitation, and the complexity
and high-technology systems and materials required to enable it, it is a
purely modern technology. Nuclear science developed through a succes-
sion of theoretical and experimental advances in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries; the latter of these coincided with the start of
World War II (WWII) which provided an incentive to pursue the poten-
tial of nuclear energy (primarily for weapons, initially), and drove the
development, testing and deployment of many key early technologies.
Following the use of nuclear weapons and the conclusion of WWII,
the (peaceful) potential for this technology to provide a new source of
energy was explored, though the military aspect remained with many of
the wide range of reactor designs explored in these early stages having a
dual energy and weapons material production function, whilst others were
tailored to naval propulsion. Key technologies were later released from
national government control and commercialised, which led to a globally
distributed fleet of reactors being constructed in the following decades.
This dual use (military and civilian) meant the initially high costs of
nuclear technology could be cross subsidised between defence and energy
government budgets. The Light Water Reactor (LWR) type emerged
as the numerically dominant technology with the largest total installed
capacity globally; the approximate period 1950–1980 saw the most
intense phase of growth in global nuclear capacity, which was followed
by a period of stagnation (due to a range of factors including major acci-
dents and changing economic conditions), followed by a limited (relative
to the initial growth phase) ‘nuclear renaissance’ after approximately 2000
[36].

Themes Through the Evolution of Human Energy Use

This section identifies common themes apparent through the shifts in
energy paradigms identified in the previous subsection, the systemic
factors which influenced them, and the nature of the energy ‘bind’ in
which contemporary human civilisation finds itself in as a result of the
long evolution of its modes of energy use.
 1 INTRODUCTION 15

Succession and Interdependence of Energy Sources and Types

The preceding sections describe the ‘grand arc’ of human energy appro-
priation and use from the earliest days of the human species (including
related but now extinct hominids) through to the modern era. In consid-
ering this long and complex journey it is clear that a fundamental theme
is that rather than a series of successions of energy types completely
replacing and superseding ‘incumbents’, it has instead been a case of
new energy types and technologies being pioneered and spread whilst
the preceding types remain in use to some degree (and in many cases
were applied to leverage and work synergistically with the new sources).
Additionally, several of the established energy technologies underwent
evolution to new forms (whilst retaining their fundamental character),
and/or ‘reappeared’ later as a result of technological innovations. Overall,
this has resulted in total primary energy use by collective humanity
increasing by approximately five orders of magnitude from the Palaeolithic
through to the modern era [37, 38].
Fire (and pyrotechnology) was the first form of energy appropriation
and use by humans, and represented a major event in the evolution of
life on Earth in that it was the first ‘leap’ by an organism to delib-
erately obtain and control exosomatic energy. Fire use by humans was
initially only in the ‘open’ form i.e., burned freely in the open atmo-
sphere, even when spatially contained in hearths, and was based on the
combustion of biomass. Although this was revolutionary in many ways,
the constrained energy output of such fires limited their applications to
heating, lighting and cooking. With the Agricultural Revolution animal
husbandry opened up a new energy source in the form of the control
of animal metabolic output, but biomass-based fire continued to be used
in parallel to this, but in new forms and for increasingly controlled and
sophisticated applications. A key example is the emergence of charcoal
fires and metallurgy, which also allowed increasingly effective harnessing
of animal power i.e., through obtaining and forging metals (copper and
later iron) into ploughs, which were much more effective than wooden
ploughs and therefore allowed greater agricultural success [39].
The exploitation of natural energy flows to obtain mechanical power,
along with human slavery, increased in scope over many centuries
as complex societies arose following the Agricultural Revolution. Fire
however continued to be applied for basic (space heating and cooking)
and increasingly advanced applications (such as increasingly sophisticated
metallurgy, and glassmaking) whilst animal-based power remained very
16 N. KING AND A. JONES

widespread (e.g., for ploughing, and moving heavy loads over long
distances, including the materials required to construct energy-harvesting
infrastructure such as waterwheels). The pioneering of fossil fuel use
and the subsequent Industrial Revolution is described as revolutionary
because energy use started to dramatically increase in terms of total
amount, along with the range of applications.
The energy sources which had been harnessed subsequent to the
pioneering of fire and pyrotechnology were not combustion-based (i.e.,
flowing water), but the use of fossil fuels reversed this trend in that it
represented a return to, and then dramatic spread in the prevalence and
use of direct combustion. The nature of the fire used in this context was
different to that used previously in that it was based on fossil carbon
(which has a higher energy density than biomass, and is found in concen-
trated reservoirs such as coal seams) and was also utilised in much more
controlled manner (i.e., with burning taking place within the combus-
tion chambers of machinery rather than primarily in open hearths) but
was nonetheless a return to a combustion-dominated energy paradigm. In
the early stages of the Industrial Revolution previously key energy sources
such as animal-based power remained in widespread use, but were increas-
ingly (though never totally, even in the twenty-first century) displaced by
fossil-fuelled processes and machinery.
The stocks (primarily in accessible biomass) and environmental flows
(which were accessible through early technologies) available to pre-
modern societies had an overall magnitude which constrained their overall
societal size and growth rate. The large stock of energy provided by
accessing the global reservoirs of fossil fuel energy changed that paradigm,
and consequently has been the primary driver underpinning a recent
phenomenon labelled as the ‘Great Acceleration’ (a ‘sub-phenomenon’ of
the wider ‘Anthropocene’ Epoch) [40]. This is defined by energy use,
along with virtually every other measure of human activity (including,
but not limited to, overall human population; use of water, minerals and
materials; and economic growth as measured by gross domestic produc-
tion (GDP); and financial activity) having increased dramatically in the
mid-twentieth century (after WWII), taking on near-exponential char-
acteristics in recent decades. This required the dramatic increase in the
extraction and consumption (total quantity and rate of use) of fossil fuels,
and also the addition of energy from new sources (namely renewables and
nuclear) [38].
 1 INTRODUCTION 17

These new energy sources were also enabled by fossil fuels; the societal
complexity which underpinned the population base and education systems
which led to scientific innovations, along with the financing necessary
for the development of renewable and nuclear energy, are phenomena
resulting from fossil fuel use, as well as of course the direct use of
fossil energy to mine key resources, transport them and build renewable
and nuclear infrastructure. The industrial processes required to manufac-
ture high-tech and complex materials and components required for these
systems, were also largely constructed with and operated by fossil fuel
energy.

Geography and Portability

Two key factors which were instrumental in the innovation, spread and
relative success of different energy paradigms over time were geography
(position and access of energy sources relative to users according to land-
scape, topographical and other factors), and portability (amenability to
and ease of transport and distribution of energy sources to desired points
of use). Early human use of fire was not significantly constrained by
either of these factors as biomass was generally readily available in biomes
inhabited by humans, and therefore could be collected from the local
environment (in the small quantities involved), as required. The Agri-
cultural Revolution was partially driven by constraints to the portability
of food for mobile bands of humans; the shift to sedentary modes of
living largely eliminated the need to transport food (for survival, though
this occurred later as food was traded) but was the first instance where
geography started to shape energy paradigms, as agriculture could only
become established and be maintained through time where climatic, soil
and biome conditions permitted.
The harnessing of natural energy flows was also highly geography-
dependent; waterwheels were inherently linked to river access and could
only produce useful energy on rivers with sufficient and reliable flow.
Therefore, the total number of suitable sites in a given region was
constrained, which contrasted with windmills which were not as spatially
fixed (i.e., they could be located to exploit wind wherever conditions and
land availability permitted and were therefore not restricted only to the
smaller number of suitable sites as waterwheels were) and were therefore
available for use by a greater proportion of the population over larger
areas (and consequently spread more rapidly).
18 N. KING AND A. JONES

Whale oil represented one of the first instances of a fuel which had a
sufficiently high energy density to be conducive to transport over large
distances to specific end users. The oil itself was a highly specialised
product which could only be obtained, extracted and transported via
a highly complex system (consisting of highly specialised whaling ships
serviced by large-scale infrastructure), but this was emergent as a func-
tion of the high portability of the stable liquid product with a specialised
application (lighting) for which there were few practical or economic
substitutes.
Fossil fuels represented a new energy paradigm not only because of
their superlative energy content and (at the start of the Industrial Revo-
lution) abundance, they were also stable stores of energy which could
be used instantaneously as desired, and also offered a level of portability
which no other energy source (save whale oil; but this was much more
constrained in availability and application) had previously been able to
match (though the portability varied between the different forms of fossil
fuels). The combination of these factors combined to make the impact of
fossil fuels more potent than any previous paradigm. However, the highly
heterogenous global distribution of the deposits of these fuels became a
constraint which generated a range of highly complex dynamics in the
socio-political development and interaction of human societies.
As consumption of coal started to increase rapidly in the early stages
of the Industrial Revolution infrastructure (e.g., canals, railways, ports
for coastal shipping) suited to transporting large quantities of high-
mass material emerged in different countries globally (initially in Britain),
however the effectiveness of the modes of transport were constrained by
the solid and bulky nature of the material. Coal gasification was a partial
solution to making coal energy more amenable to distribution at local
scale (through distribution in urban pipe networks), but it was the fluid
nature of oil (combined with a greater energy density) which made its
use inherently more flexible. Oil (and later natural gas) could be trans-
ported and transferred at a range of scales using pumps, pipelines and
tanks, which made it amenable to integration into a wide range of indus-
trial and domestic uses, and therefore underpinned the emergence of oil
and gas as dominant (excepting some applications such as power gener-
ation for which bulk transport infrastructure for coal could be operated)
[41]. Importantly oil and coal also had sufficient energy density such that
they could be transported and used to power that transport which saw a
significant increase in the range and speed of industrial vehicles, initially
 1 INTRODUCTION 19

through the steam engine and subsequently with the internal combustion
engine.
The distribution of fossil fuel reserves in the modern world are a
function of landscapes and biomes in remote geological timeframes. The
Middle Eastern petroleum systems formed on the shallow continental
shelf-margins of the Jurassic Era Tethys Sea, and much of the global
coal resource originated in tropical forests located in equatorial regions
of Carboniferous Era Pangea (which tectonic movements subsequently
redistributed) [42, 43]; these carbon deposits supplied much of the fossil
fuel energy which has driven industrialisation and the Great Accelera-
tion but from the anthropogenic perspective, were randomly spatially
distributed. One of the key outcomes of this was that nations and regions
endowed (by chance) with fossil fuel resources (or were able to obtain
them e.g., through having land or sea infrastructure to import energy
resources) had a distinct advantage in industrialising; this was a key factor
in the nations which achieved this early (e.g., Britain, USA, Germany).
Later, nations and regions with large reserves (particularly of oil) have
been able to leverage this to gain geopolitical influence or have been the
target of action (geopolitical and/or military) by others to gain access
to and control of such resources [44, 45]. In particular early adopters of
such technology and energy use (such as Britain) were able to use this to
their advantage and building on previous exploitation of energy sources—
notably slaves—conquered and colonised countries to gain access to
further resources.
Electrification (enabled by fossil fuel use and later supplemented
by renewables and nuclear) represents a further paradigm change in
that it has ‘smoothed’ out the influence of geography and porta-
bility. This is because any energy users connected to electricity grids
(though not locally-generated electricity) are effectively disconnected
from any concerns over portability, as electricity is available instanta-
neously without the requirements to transfer and process fuels and
materials, and geographical constraints to local resource availability is
reduced by the long-distance transmission of electrical power. Fuels and
energy flows still have to be accessed and converted to generate the
power, but these functions are largely centralised in many areas of the
world and are therefore largely not immediately apparent to the user.
Portability manifests as the requirement to generate high voltages and
minimise losses from transmission of the power (though again this is
largely ‘invisible’ from the users’ perspective). The spread of electrical
20 N. KING AND A. JONES

grids to a large proportion of the world in recent decades has made energy
(in a form which can be used for a large range of applications) available to
a large number of users for which geography had previously been a major
constraint [46].

Energy Return on Investment

One key measure of the changing nature of human energy use over time is
Energy Return on Investment (EROI, also Energy Returned on Energy
Invested, EROEI). In its simplest form, this is a dimensionless ratio of
the quantity of energy yielded by an energy source or technology to the
quantity of energy required to obtain that energy or enable its usage;
it is therefore a measure of net energy (yield minus costs).4 The energy
sources used by humans through most of history have had positive but
relatively low EROI values, for example humans in early societies had to
use a portion of their limited supply of (endosomatic) energy to gather
biomass to fuel fires, however the thermal energy yielded by the fire was
significantly greater than this input. Additionally, the energy yielded could
be leveraged to assist in obtaining further (endosomatic) energy such as by
cooking of food to enhance nutrient gain. However, for most of human
history the ratio of yield to cost was relatively low, and the general dearth
of ‘surplus’ (or discretionary) energy was an overarching constraint on the
rate of growth and change achievable by human societies.
This paradigm of limited energy returns and general low EROI
values (which persisted for the majority of human history) was finally
transformed with the flourishing of fossil fuel use and the Industrial Revo-
lution. This is because the energy yielded by fossil fuels (at the start of the
industrial era; see below) was vastly greater (up to two orders of magni-
tude) than had to be invested to obtain the fuels, which is as a result of
fossil fuels having a high energy density and being concentrated in reser-
voirs. This is a function of ancient biological (primarily photosynthesis
and anaerobic breakdown) and geological processes (consolidation and
transformation, i.e., coalification and catagenesis) collecting and concen-
trating energy bearing materials over very long periods of time, which

4 The EROI concept can include significant complexity in the form of consideration
of the where the boundaries of energy systems are assumed to be (what level of energy
input are considered before energy is yielded to the final user) along with the efficiency
of energy conversions at different stages, the role of material embedded energy, etc. For
the purposes of this subsection, only the simplest description of EROI is considered.
 1 INTRODUCTION 21

have provided reserves of energy which are essentially ‘ready to use/free

at point of use’ for humans.
Although fossil fuels have to be extracted (e.g., through mining and
drilling) and processed (e.g., through refining), these processes are minor
(in terms of energy input) in comparison to that which would be required
to generate synthetic equivalents ‘from scratch’. It is this gain from accu-
mulation and concentration of energy through natural processes over
geological time (akin to the trickle charging of a battery) which has
afforded human civilisation very high EROI resources in the form of fossil
fuels [47].
Portable and high EROI fossil fuels have underpinned the dramatic
growth in human population and the physical extent of civilisation in
the modern era (i.e., via the Great Acceleration) as a result of the large
amount ‘discretionary energy’ that they have yielded. However, different
human organisations and societies through time have always sought to
obtain resources via the ‘low hanging fruit’ principle; those resources
which are most readily accessible and easiest to utilise have been pref-
erentially utilised first, and fossil fuels have been no exception to this.
The downside of the ‘low hanging fruit’ principle is that as depletion
of finite stocks of resources continues, the remaining reserves become
progressively harder to access. For fossil fuels, this means greater energy
investment being required in non-conventional exploration and produc-
tion such as drilling deeper wells, extracting lower quality ores from
mines, or transporting fuels from more distant locations. The result of
this greater energy investment is that the EROI value of all fossil fuels has
been and continues to experience an ongoing and irreversible decline.
EROI estimates vary although the mean current global EROI for coal,
nuclear and wind are comparable (at around 20:1 – meaning twenty times
as much energy can be usefully used as is required to access it), with gas,
geothermal and solar having lower EROI. However, hydroelectric EROI
is significantly larger at over 75:1 [48] but of course far less portable
as a fuel. More recent estimates of societal EROI (EROI estimated at
the final energy stage where it is consumed such as petrol or electricity)
have shown a dramatically lower EROI for fossil fuels. Final energy stage
EROI for electricity generated from coal or gas could be as low as 6:1
[49] which is comparable to solar photovoltaic and lower than that for
wind. Therefore, the historic EROI advantage of fossil fuels over other
sources of energy appears to have come to an end.
22 N. KING AND A. JONES

Maintenance of complex societies requires a minimum EROI value

to sustain the far-from-equilibrium thermodynamic conditions in which
these societies exist (i.e., to counteract entropic effects and allow addi-
tional complexity to be built). This is why substantial growth in overall
human society was only possible when fossil fuels were yielding consis-
tently high EROI values. As fossil fuels undergo progressively greater
depletion and more energetically intensive extraction (e.g., deep ocean
drilling, hydraulic fracturing and tar sand mining) must be increasingly
pursued globally, their EROI value will continue to drop. As noted above,
the other energy sources brought into use at scale using fossil energy
(renewables and nuclear) have different EROI characteristics; generally,
the discretionary energy yield may be lower and more homogenous than
that obtained historically with fossil fuels. Therefore, the EROI of the
aggregated energy sources underpinning civilisation may inevitably reach
a new equilibrium value [50–53].
Despite the fundamental importance of EROI as a means to iden-
tify energy sources and technologies which are able to provide energy
surpluses, and a measure of their ability to underpin complexity, the
importance of EROI may in the modern context be secondary to geog-
raphy and portability considerations. This is because the spatial spread of
portable energy to widely distributed users (not just those in proximity
to resources) has been fundamental to the transformation of energy (and
more general civilisational) paradigms. An energy resource with very high
EROI but which is not amenable to being stored or portable (by transport
or transmission) would have little capacity to be transformational. Simi-
larly, some modern technological uses of energy-dense resources reduce
their EROI at the point of use (e.g., use of natural gas for electricity
generation and long distance transmission, which incurs losses at each
stage), but the gains in transcending geography through portability and
high utility value of the end product are the key to making this system
useful.

Complexity, Energy and the Superorganism

A characteristic and general trend of human civilisation through time has
been growing complexity. This has been subject to short term ‘noise’ and
reversals as societies at regional scale have decreased in complexity, but
the global trend has been a steady increase over the course of history.
Complexity in this context is defined as the totality of socio-economic,
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 5. Stylus, et Stigma, lente aucta.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Heath, whose tips are bearded, and just within the blossom; the leaves grow
by fours, the flowers mostly by threes, and are smooth, cylindrically club-
shaped, an inch long, and of a deep blood colour.

DESCRIPTION.

Stem shrubby, grows two feet high, and upright; the branches grow
upright, having many smaller branches, which are thick set, and very short.
The Leaves grow by fours, are linear, smooth, shining, and of a deep
green, having very short foot-stalks, pressed to the stem.
The Flowers terminate the shorter branches near the summit of the
stem, forming as it were a long bunch; the foot-stalks are long, having three
floral leaves at their base.
Empalement. Cup four-leaved, which are lance-shaped, sawed, and
pressed to the blossom.
The Blossom is cylindrically club-shaped, smooth, blood colour, and an
inch long; the segments of the mouth are obtuse, and straight.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads, fixed into the receptacle; the tips are
bearded, and just within the blossom.
Pointal. Seed-vessel nearly egg-shaped, furrowed, and downy; Shaft
without the blossom; Summit four-cornered.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from August, till December.

REFERENCE.

1. Empalement, and Blossom.

2. The Empalement magnified.
3. The Chives, and Pointal.
4. The Chives detached from the Pointal; one tip magnified.
5. The Shaft, and its Summit magnified.
 ERICA cubica.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Erica, antheris basi bicornibus, sub-inclusis; stylus longissimus; corollis

sub-campanulatis, purureis, oris laciniis patulis, maximis, ovatis; foliis sub-
quaternis, obtusis.

DESCRIPTIO.

Caulis erectus, teres, ramosus, fruticosus, pedalis; rami et ramuli

filiformes, laxi, erecti.
Folia quaterna, sæpe quina, obtusa, reflexa, apice incurvata, glabra,
nitida, subtus sulcata; petiolis rubris, adpressis.
Flores sub-terminales, umbellati, cernui; pedunculi longissimi, angulati,
purpurei, foliolis binis, coloratis instructi.
Calyx. Perianthium tetraphyllum, foliolis ovatis, acuminatis, adpressis,
apicibus viridis.
Corolla globoso-campanulata, purpurea, limbo maximo, expanso;
laciniis ovatis, concavis.
Stamina. Filamenta octo capillaria, longitudine tubi, receptaculo inserta.
Antheræ bifidæ, ad basin bicornutæ.
Pistillum. Germen sub-globosum. Stylus filiformis, exsertus, corolla
duplo longior, purpureus. Stigma concavum, marginatum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mensi Aprili, in Julium.

REFERENTIA.

1. Calyx, et Corolla.
2. Calyx lente auctus.
 3. Stamina, et Pistillum.
4. Stamina a Pistillo diducta; anthera una lente aucta.
5. Stylus, et Stigma, lente aucta.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Heath, with tips two-horned at the base, nearly within the blossoms; shaft
very long; blossoms almost bell-shaped, and purple, having the segments of
the mouth spreading, very large, and egg-shaped; leaves growing mostly by
fours, and blunt ended.

DESCRIPTION.

Stem upright, cylindrical, branching, shrubby, growing a foot high; the

larger and smaller branches are thread-shaped, weak, and upright.
Leaves grow by fours, often by fives, blunt ended, bent back, and turned
inward at the point; smooth, shining, and channelled beneath; foot-stalks
red, and pressed to the stem.
The Flowers grow near the summits of the branches, in bunches,
hanging down; having very long foot-stalks, angled, purple, and two small,
coloured leaves on them.
Empalement. Cup four-leaved, which are egg-shaped, tapered, and
pressed to the blossom, the points green.
Blossom globularly bell-shaped and purple, the border very large and
spreading; the segments egg-shaped and concave.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads, the length of the tube, fixed into the
receptacle. Tips two-cleft, and two-horned at the base.
Pointal. Seed-bud nearly globular. Shaft thread-shaped, without the
blossom, twice its length, and purple. Summit concave, and bordered.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from April, till July.

REFERENCE.
1. The Empalement, and Blossom.
2. The Empalement magnified.
3. The Chives, and Pointal.
4. The Chives detached from the Pointal; one tip magnified.
5. The Shaft, and Summit, magnified.
 ERICA curviflora.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Erica, antheris muticis, sub-exsertis; corollis curvatis, clavato cylindricis,

pubescentibus, terminalibus, luteo-aurantiis; foliis quaternis, linearibus,
glabris.

DESCRIPTIO.

Caulis fruticosus, bipedalis; laxus, superne villosus; rami laxi, ramulosi,

ramulis brevissimis, frequentissimis, sparsis.
Folia quaterna, linearia, obtusa, glabra, subtus sulcata.
Flores terminales in ramulis, patenti, racemum longum formantes;
pedunculi brevissimi, foliolis tribus, adpressis.
Calyx. Perianthium tetraphyllum, foliolis subulatis, acuminatis, glabris,
adpressis.
Corolla curvata, clavata, pollicaris, pubescentia, luteo-aurantia; oris
laciniis expansis.
Stamina. Filamenta octo capillaria, curvata, longitudine tubi. Antheræ
muticæ.
Pistillum. Germen clavatum, sulcatum. Stylus filiformis, curvatus,
exsertus. Stigma tetragonum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mensi Julii, in Novembrem.

REFERENTIA.

1. Calyx, et Corolla.
2. Calyx, lente auctus.
3. Stamina, et Pistillum.
 4. Stamina a Pistillo diducta; anthera una lente aucta.
5. Stylus, et Stigma, lente aucta.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Heath, with beardless tips, just without the blossoms, which are curved,
cylindrically club-shaped, downy, terminating the branches, and of a yellow
gold colour; the leaves grow by fours, are linear, and smooth.

DESCRIPTION.

Stem shrubby, grows two feet high, weak, and hairy at the top; branches
weak and numerous; the smaller branches are very short, numerous, and
scattered.
Leaves grow by fours, are linear, blunt, smooth, and furrowed
underneath.
Flowers terminate the smaller branches, spreading out, and forming a
long spike; foot-stalks very short, with three small leaves pressed to the cup.
Empalement. Cup four-leaved, which are awl-shaped, tapering, smooth,
and pressed to the blossom.
Blossom curved, club-shaped, an inch long, downy, and of a yellow gold
colour; the segments of the mouth spread outward.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads, which are curved, and the length of the
blossom. Tips beardless.
Pointal. Seed-bud club-shaped, and furrowed. Shaft thread-shaped,
curved, and without the blossom. Summit four-cornered.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from July, till November.

REFERENCE.

1. The Empalement, and Blossom.

2. The Empalement, magnified.
3. The Chives, and Pointal.
4. The Chives detached from the Pointal; one tip magnified.
5. The Shaft, and its Summit, magnified.
 ERICA discolor.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Erica, antheris aristatis, inclusis; stylo exserto; corollis tubulosis,

subcylindraceis; foliis ternis.

DESCRIPTIO.

Caulis fruticosus, tripedalis, teres, erectus, gracilis, superne pubescens,

ramulis subsimplicibus.
Folia terna, linearia, erecto-patentia, supra plana, subtus revoluta, nitida,
saturate viridia.
Flores plerumque tres, subcernui, ramei, terminales, prope caulis
summitatem.
Calyx. Perianthium duplex, interius tetraphyllum, foliolis ovatis, erectis,
luteo-virentibus: exterius triphyllum, foliolis brevioribus priori
incumbentibus.
Corolla tubulosa, subcylindracea, ima parte, carnea, pallida, summa,
flavo-virescente, limbo quadrilobo, æquali erectiusculo.
Stamina. Filamenta octo capillaria, receptaculo inserta. Antheræ
oblongiusculæ, bipartitæ, inclusæ, aristatæ.
Pistillum. Germen oblongum. Stylus filiformis, corolla longior, apice
inflexo. Stigma subtetragonum, virescens.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a Novembri in Aprilem.

REFERENTIA.

1. Calyx, et Corolla.
2. Calyx lente auctus.
 3. Stamina, et Pistillum.
4. Stamina a Pistillo diducta; anthera una lente aucta.
5. Stylus, et Stigma lente aucta.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Heath, with bearded tips within the blossom; the pointal standing out; the
blossom tubular, nearly cylindrical; leaves growing by threes.

DESCRIPTION.

Stem shrubby, grows to three feet high, cylindrical, upright, slender,

downy at the top, the branches seldom divided.
Leaves growing by threes, linear, between upright and spreading, smooth
on the upper, and rolled back on the under, surface, shining and dark green.
Flowers are commonly three together, bending a little downward,
terminating the branches near the upper part of the stem.
Empalement. Cup double, the inner four-leaved, ovate, erect, and of a
greenish yellow: the outer three-leaved, the leaves shorter than the former,
and lying on them.
Blossom tubular, nearly cylindrical, of a light flesh colour at the base,
and yellowish green at the mouth, which is divided into four equal nearly
erect segments.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads, fixed into the receptacle. Tips nearly
oblong, divided, bearded, and within the blossom.
Pointal. Seed-vessel oblong. Shaft thread-shaped, longer than the
blossom, the point bending. The Summit nearly four-cornered, and greenish.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Time of flowering from November till April.

REFERENCE.

1. The Empalement with the Blossom.

2. The Empalement magnified.
3. The Chives and Pointal.
4. The Chives detached from the Pointal, one tip magnified.
5. The Shaft, and its Summit magnified.
 ERICA droseroides.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Erica, antheris cristatis, inclusis; corolla ventricosa, ore obliqua, purpurea;

pedunculis coloratis, longissimis; foliis alternis, sparsis, obtusis, pilis
glandulosis micantibus hirtis.

DESCRIPTIO.

Caulis erectus, spithameus; rami et ramuli filiformes, sparsi, erecto-

patentes, virgati.
Folia alterna, sparsa, linearia, obtusa, apice reflexa, pilis glandulosis
hirta.
Flores terminales, sub-umbellati, sub-erecti; pedunculi filiformes, foliis
duplo longiores; bracteæ minutæ, coloratæ.
Calyx. Perianthium tetraphyllum; foliolis sub-ovatis, viscosis,
acuminatis, coloratis, apicibus reflexis.
Corolla ventricosa, purpurea, costata, pubescens, ore obliqua, arctata,
profunde sanguinea; laciniis cordatis, expansis.
Stamina. Filamenta octo capillaria, torta, receptaculo inserta; antheræ
cristatæ, inclusæ.
Pistillum. Germen clavatum, sulcatum. Stylus filiformis, purpureus.
Stigma tetragonum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mense Julii ad Octobrem.

REFERENTIA.

1. Calyx et Corolla.
2. Calyx lente auctus.
 3. Stamina et Pistillum.
4. Stamina a Pistillo diducta; antherâ unâ lente auctâ.
5. Stylus et Stigma lente aucta.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Heath, with crested tips, within the blossom, which is big-bellied, oblique-
mouthed, and purple; the foot-stalks are coloured, and very long; leaves
grow alternate, scattered, blunt, and thick with shining glandular hairs.

DESCRIPTION.

Stem upright, about a span high; the larger and smaller branches are
thread-shaped, scattered, upright, spreading, and twiggy.
Leaves grow alternate, scattered, linear, blunt, the end bent back, and
thick with glandular hairs.
Flowers are terminal, nearly in bunches, almost upright; the foot-stalks
are thread-shaped, and twice as long as the leaves; the floral leaves are
small, and coloured.
Empalement. Cup four-leaved; leaves nearly egg-shaped, clammy,
pointed, coloured, and bent outward at the top.
Blossom big-bellied, purple, ribbed, and downy, with the mouth oblique,
narrowed, and of a deep blood colour; the segments are heart-shaped, and
spreading.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads, which are twisted, and fixed into the
receptacle; the tips are crested, and within the blossom.
Pointal. Seed-vessel club-shaped, and furrowed. Shaft thread-shaped,
and purple. Summit four-cornered.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from the month of July till October.

REFERENCE.
1. The Empalement and Blossom.
2. The Empalement magnified.
3. The Chives and Pointal.
4. The Chives detached from the Pointal; one tip magnified.
5. The Shaft and its Summit magnified.
 ERICA exsurgens.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Erica, antheris muticis, exsertis; foliis quaternis, mucronatis, apicibus

reflexis; corollis clavato-cylindraceis, verticillatis, aurantiis.

DESCRIPTIO.

Caulis fruticosus, pedalis et ultra, erectus, basi simplicissimus; rami

verticillati, simplices, erecti.
Folia quaterna, linearia, glabra, apice reflexa, mucronata, supra plana,
subtus sulcata, unguicularia, petiolis adpressis.
Flores in medio ramorum verticillati, recti; verticilli alter alteri
exsurgentes; pedunculi longi, bracteis tribus instructi.
Calyx. Perianthium tetraphyllum, foliolis lanceolatis, acuminatis,
carinatis, viscosis, adpressis.
Corolla clavato-cylindrica, pollicaria, aurantia; ore limbo quadrilobo
revoluto, laciniis superioribus longioribus.
Stamina. Filamenta octo capillaria, receptaculo inserta. Antheræ muticæ,
magnæ, exsertæ.
Pistillum. Germen clavatum, sulcatum. Stylus filiformis, staminibus
longior. Stigma tetragonum.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
Floret a mense Septembris, in Martium.

REFERENTIA.

1. Calyx, et Corolla.
2. Calyx lente auctus.
3. Stamina et Pistillum.