Fam. 100. Clethraceae Kl. White Alder Family 



Shrubs with alternate serrate deciduous leaves, simple or stellate hairs and very 

 fragrant flowers in crowded terminal simple or paniculate racemes; flowers regular, 

 hypogynous, polypetalous, 5-merous; disk none; sepals separate, imbricate in bud; 

 stamens 10, the filaments elongate; anthers sagittate, extrorse in bud, their sacs 

 opening by pores at base and inverted at anthesis; ovary superior, 3-celled; syle 

 3-cleft near summit; capsule globose, 3-valved, the valves 2-cleft at maturity, 

 many-seeded, enclosed in the persistent calyx. 



Only one genus. 



1. Clethra L. Sweet Pepper-bush. White Alder 



Characters those of the family. Consisting of about 120 species that are found 

 mainly in Asia and tropical America; also in temperate America and Madeira. 



1. Clethra ainifolia L. Fig. 603. 



Shrub to 3 m. tall; leaves 5-12 cm. long, obovate-elliptic to cuneate-obovate or 

 occasionally elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse to shortly acuminate at apex, tapering to a 

 petiole to 2 cm. long, sharply serrate above the middle, nearly entire below the 

 middle, straight-veined; racemes erect, to 2 dm. long, densely short-pubescent; the 

 deciduous bracts shorter than the flowers; flowers on short-pubescent pedicels 2-5 

 mm. long; calyx lobes triangular-ovate, acute, short-pubescent; petals white, oblong- 

 obovate, about 8 mm. long; filaments glabrous; style slender; capsule pubescent, 

 about 3 mm. in diameter, erect or ascending. 



In swamps, about lakes and in wet woods and thickets in s.e. Tex., July-Sept.; 

 from Me. s. to Fla. and Tex. 



In some regions this species is known as "poor man's soap" — the flowers when 

 crushed in water form a lather. 



Fam. 101. Ericaceae Juss. Heath Family 



Shrubs, trees or rarely herbs or vines, evergreen or deciduous; leaves simple, 

 alternate, or rarely opposite or whorled, exstipulate, leathery to thin-herbaceous, 

 entire or serrate; flowers perfect, regular or irregular, usually in racemes or pani- 

 cles, rarely solitary; calyx of 4 to 7 distinct or partially united sepals, usually per- 

 sistent; corolla of 4 to 7 distinct or united petals, commonly funnelform, campanu- 

 late or urceolate; stamens hypogynous, twice as many as the corolla lobes; anthers 

 bilocular, often appendaged, dehiscing by "apical" slits, clefts or pores; style single, 

 the stigma minute and discoid; fruit a loculicidal or septicidal capsule, drupe or 

 berry. 



Perhaps 2,000 species in about 75 genera nearly world-wide in distribution. A 



great many ornamental species occur in this family primary of which are the 



rhododendrons. 



1. Ovary inferior; fruit a juicy berry crowned by the persistent calyx teeth 



1. Vaccinium 



1. Ovary superior; fruit a dry capsule (2) 



2(1). Corolla funnelform, elongate, the tube more or less glandular-stipitate; 

 capsule ellipsoid-conic, septicidal 2. Rhododendron 



2. Corolla urceolate, ovoid or cylindric, short, nonglandular; capsule subglobose 



to ovoid, loculicidal (3) 



1267 



