Class Vlll. Order I. 149 



the long, crooked, yellow anthers. Style declining. Low grounds. 

 July, August. Perennial. 



161. MENZIESIA. 



JVIENZIESIA C<ERULEA. ISwz. Purple Menzif.sia. 



Leaves scattered, crowded, linear, obtuse, cartila- 

 ginously denticulate ; peduncles terminal, aggregate, 

 one-flowered ; flowers campanulate, decandrous ; ca- 

 lyx acute. 



Srjn. ERICA COERULEA. Willd. 



A beautiful alpine shrub resembling a heath in its foliage and 

 flowers. The leaves are not unlike those of the fir tribe. Pe- 

 duncles and calyx pubescent. Calyx in five segments, purplish, 

 oblong-linear, obtuse. Corolla purple, cylindric-ovate, divided 

 at the mouth into five auriculated emarginate segments. Fila- 

 ments roundish, purple, nearly as long as the corolla, inserted in the 

 receptacle. Anthers oblong, bifid at top. Style erect, green, as 

 long as the stamens. Germ globular. Capsule roundish with 

 five longitudinal depressions, five celled, the dissepiments formed 

 by the indexed margins of the valves. Seeds oblong ovate. 

 On the barren summit of the White mountains. July. 



162. DIRCA. 

 DIRCA PAHTSTRIS. Leather Wood. 



Bigelow, Medical Botany, Pi.xxxvii. 



This is an irregular shrub somewhat distinguished by the 

 horizontal tendency of its branches and leaves. The branches 

 have an interrupted or jointed mode of growth. They are flex- 

 ible and exceedingly strong and tough. Leaves scattered or al- 

 ternate, with very short petioles, oval, entire, subacute, downy 

 when young; smooth and membranous when fully grown, and 

 pale on the under side. The flowers appear much earlier than 

 the leaves. Previously to their emerging they exist in minia- 

 ture within a small hairy bud, which occupies a sheath or cavi- 

 ty in the end of each flowering branch. They are commonly in 

 bunches of three together with their peduncles cohering. Each 

 flower is about half an inch long, of a yellow colour and without 

 calyx. The corolla is funnel shaped, with a contraction near 



