ROCKROSE FAMILY 



crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark at the base of 

 the stem, hence the popular name, Frost- weed. 



It also had its place in the medicine chest as a gargle for 

 ulcerations, and as a tonic. 



CISTACE.E ROCKROSE FAMILY 



Hudsonia ericoides, L. 



Lemon-yellow Hudsonia, 



Barren-heath, 



May- June American Heath, 



Poverty-grass, 

 Field-pine. 



Hudsonia: in honour of William Hudson, an early English 



botanist. 

 Ericoides: the suffix oides means resembling, therefore 



resembling Erica or heather. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons, 

 and beach sand. 



THE PLANT: erect, four to nine inches high, bushily 

 branched from the base; the stems tufted, dark brown and 

 woody, covered with short, very soft hairs. 



THE LEAVES: persistent; alternate; awl-shaped or scale- 

 like; very small, less than one half inch long; downy; 

 stemless; entire. 



THE FLOWERS: numerous and showy, crowded on the 

 upper part of the branches, on slender, naked stems; per- 

 sistent calyx a fawn-pink. 



THE FRUIT: a pod. 



One of the most common plants of Nantucket, and yet, 

 there is no plant that so frequently sails under false colours, 

 for, when not in bloom, it closely resembles the heather, 

 as is indicated by the name, ericoides. Again, it is easily 



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