382 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



paler and reticulate beneath, with a fringe of soft hairs on the 

 margin, on a short, downy footstalk. Flowers drooping, in a 

 terminal cluster. Flower-stem short, with a lance-shaped, per- 

 sistent bract at base, and two short concave ones just above. 

 Calyx of three to five, reddish, rounded segments, which re- 

 main and invest the base of the ripe fruit. Corolla pitcher- 

 shaped, flesh-colored, pellucid at the base, hairy inside, with a 

 contracted mouth of five short, reflexed segments. Anthers 

 short, dark purple, opening with terminal pores, and tipped 

 with two long, crimson, reflexed bristles; filaments thick at 

 bottom, tapering, hairy. Stigma short, cylindrical. Ovary 

 green, orbicular, resting on a flattened, purple torus. 



Berries globular, of a deep red, filled with a tasteless, mealy 

 pulp, and a drupe made up of five wedge-shaped nuts. They 

 remain on through the year, and serve as food for partridges 

 and grouse. 



This plant abounds in the Alps and Pyrenees, and in all the 

 northern and mountainous parts of Europe, as well as in this 

 country. Every part of the plant is very astringent. In Swe- 

 den and Russia it is employed in great quantities in tanning, in 

 the preparation of morocco, and sometimes for dying wool an 

 ash color. In Iceland, according to Sir William Hooker, it is 

 used to impart a deep brown, and a black color. " A deep brown 

 dye is produced by boiling the cloth in water, with a quantity of 

 the leaves of sort'dyng or A'rbutus uva ursi," (for six hours, 

 in an iron pot.) To make it afterwards black, it is boiled with a 

 paste of earth called sorta* In medicine, it has been found effi- 

 cacious in diseases affecting the urinary passages and in those 

 of the kidneys. 



THE RHODORA TRIBE. RHODO'REJE. (Resembling Rhodbra.) Don. 



This section contains many of the most showy and orna- 

 mental evergreen or deciduous plants known, and several of the 

 most beautiful are natives to our climate. They are distin- 

 guished by having flat leaves with the mid-rib callous, and 

 flower-buds with imbricated scales resembling the cones of 

 pines. 



* See Journal of a Tour in Iceland, p. 215 of the 2d ed. 



