MYRICA 59 



a. Buds subglobose, obtuse; 



fruits white or drab, encrusted with 

 heavy wax 



b. Leaves mostly deciduous; 



twigs villous when young; 



fruit 4 mm. in diameter 2. M. pensyl- 



vanica 

 b. Leaves evergreen; twigs 



essentially glabrous 



c. Leaves 4-9 cm. long; 



fruits 2-3 mm. in diameter 3. M. cerifera 



c. Leaves 1-4 cm. long; 



fruits 3-4 mm. in diameter 4. M. pusilla 



1. _M. gale L. Sweet Gale . Shrub 0.3-2 m. high, with 

 strongly ascending brown branches; buds conical -ovoid. Swamps, 

 Labrador to Alaska, south to New York, Minnesota and Oregon, 

 and in the Appalachians to North Carolina and Tennessee (Fig, 36). 



2. M^. pensylvanica Loisel. Bayberry . Candleberry . ( M. 

 caroliniensis of authors, not Mill.). Stout stiffly branched shrub 

 0. 3-2 m. high (rarely up to 4. 5 m. high, with a trunk 1. 2 dm. in 

 diameter); branches mostly whitish-gray or drab, the young ones 

 villous, pilose, or glabrate; buds about 4 mm. long; fruits cover- 

 ed with white wax, 3. 5-4. 5 mm. in diameter. Sterile soil, mostly 

 in the coastal plain, North Carolina to Newfoundland, inland about 

 Lake Erie (Fig. 37). 



3. M. cerifer a L. Wax- Myrtle . Shrub or tree up to 12 m. 

 high, with a trunk diameter up to 2 dm. ; young branches waxy, 

 glabrous or sparsely pilose; leaves evergreen,narrowly oblan- 

 ceolate, 4-9 cm. long and 0. 5-2 cm. broad, yellow-green, coria- 

 ceous, heavily coated with waxy granules; buds small, about 1mm. 

 long, glandular-dotted; fruit 2-3 mm. in diameter. Thickets and 

 swamps, Florida to Texas, north to New Jersey and Arkansas; 

 mostly on the coastal plain (Fig. 38). 



4. M^ pusilla Raf. Dwarf Wax- Myrtle. Low colonial sto- 

 loniferous shrub 0.2-2 m. high; branchlets waxy, glabrous or 

 nearly so; leaves evergreen, coriaceous, oblanceolate to obovate 

 and obtuse, 1,5-4 cm. long; fruits 3-4 mm. in diameter. Pine 

 barrens and woods, Florida to Texas, north to Delaware and Ar- 

 kansas; mostly on the coastal plain (Fig. 39). 



