XX. 9. COMMON AMERICAN ROSE BAY. 385 



on the ground, and its central stems rising to the height of from 

 three to six or seven feet. It forms round or straggling clumps 

 or islets in the swamps where it is found. In more southern 

 States, it sometimes rises to the height of twenty or twenty-five 

 feet, with a diameter of four or five inches. The stem is gray- 

 ish, and rough with loose, broken flakes of bark. The recent 

 shoots are large, and, with the leaf-stalks, are yellow or of a 

 yellowish green color, often covered with white dust. The 

 older branches are dark purple and soon turn gray. 



When the leaves first begin to expand, they are of a reddish 

 color and covered with an abundant red down or cotton. When 

 fully expanded, they are smooth, of a shining light, afterwards 

 dark green above; when several years old, they become brown, 

 coarse and rough. Their lower surface is pale or rust-colored. 

 They are from three or four to eight or nine inches long, and 

 one or two broad, elliptic-oblong, round, obtuse, or acute at 

 base, with a very entire, slightly reflexed border, and ending in 

 a rather sharp, entire point. Their texture is firm, tough and 

 leathery, and they are supported on very stout footstalks, flat- 

 tened or hollowed above, half an inch or an inch long. 



The flowers are in round, thyrse-like, crowded clusters, from 

 four to eight inches broad, on the ends of the branches. The 

 large, conical, flower-buds are formed in September. Just be- 

 fore expanding they are one or two inches long, and an inch 

 broad, invested with a large number of concave, rhomboidal, 

 pointed, more or less colored scales, one of which protects each 

 separate flower-bud, and among which the richly colored corolla 

 is seen at intervals. As the flowers expand these scales fall off, 

 leaving numerous scars at the base of the common flower- 

 stem. Each flower is supported by a stalk one or two inches 

 long, which, as well as the calyx leaves, is covered with a vis- 

 cid or glutinous down, and has long, thread-like, downy bracts, 

 on each side at the base. The calyx is divided into five une- 

 qual, rounded segments, of a delicate texture. The corolla is 

 of one piece, with a border expanding from a short tube into 

 five unequal, oblong, rounded segments, the upper one of which 

 is largest and has its cavity mottled with numerous small, yel- 

 low or greenish or orange-colored spots. The color of the corolla 

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