366 Class XXII. Order IV. 



TETRJ1NDRM. 



425. MYRICA. 



MYRICA GALE. L. Sweet Gale. Dutch Myrtle. 



Leaves wedge-lanceolate, slightly serrate above ; 

 barren aments imbricate, the scales ciliate ; fruit in 

 scaly heads. Mich. 



A branching shrub, about four or five feet in height. Leaves 

 alternate, lanceolate-wedge shaped, (their termination much 

 more obtuse than in the European variety,) serrated and nearly 

 smooth. Aments alternate, from the axils of the last year's 

 leaves, short, oblong-ovate. The fruit has a strong, penetrating, 

 spicy scent. About the edges of Fresh pond. April. 



MYRICA CERIFERA. Buyberry. Wax Myrtle. 



Bigelovv, Medical Botany, PI. xliii. 



Leaves wedge-lanceolate, with a few serratures at 

 top ; barren aments lax ; fruit spherical, naked, dis- 

 tinct. MX. 



The Wax Myrtle is found in dry soils, bearing fruit at every 

 size, from the height of one foot to that of six or eight. The 

 lop is much branched, and covered with a greyish bark. The 

 leaves are wedge-lanceolate, varying in width, sometimes entire, 

 but more frequently toothed, particularly toward the end. They 

 are somewhat pubescent, a little paler beneath, and generally 

 twisted or revolute in their mode of growth. They are insert- 

 ed in a scattered manner by short petiole?. The flowers appear 

 in May before the leaves are fully expanded. The barren ones 

 grow in catkins, which are sessile, erect, about half or three 

 quarters of an inch long; originating irom the sides of the last 

 years twigs. Every flower is formed by a concave rhomboidal 

 scale, containing three or four pairs of roundish anthers on a 

 branched foot-stalk. The fertile flowers, which grow on a dif- 

 ferent shrub, are less than half the size of the barren ones, and 

 consist of narrower scales, with each an ovate germ, and two 

 filiform styles. To these aments succeed clusters or aggrega- 

 tions of small globular fruits resembling berries, which are at 

 first green, but finally become nearly white. They consist of a 

 hard stone inclosing a dicotyledonous kernel. This stone is 



