ERICACE^— HEATH FAMILY 



y 



^ TRAILING ARBUTUS. MAYFLOWER 



Epigcta ripens 



Epig&a, from epi, upon, and ge, the earth, in allusion to 

 the habit of trailing growth. 



A prostrate, slightly woody, branching shrub with al- 

 ternate evergreen leaves; growing in sandy loam, mossy, 

 rocky soil, on mountainsides, especially in the shade of 

 pine-trees. Newfoundland to the Northwest Territory, 

 southward to Florida, Kentucky, and Michigan. Fre- 

 quent on the sides of ravines in northern Ohio. April, May. 



Stem. — Woody, prostrate and trailing, bristly with 

 rusty hairs; the trailing branches rooting at the nodes. 



Leaves. — Evergreen, often weather-worn, on short 

 rusty, hairy petioles; alternate, oval, rounded at base and 

 apex, smooth above, more or less hairy below. 



Flowers. — Fragrant, pink fading to white, about half 

 an inch across, in clusters of few or many from the axils 

 of the leaves. 



Calyx. — Five dry, overlapping sepals. 



Corolla. — Salver-form, tube hairy inside, spreading into 

 five equal lobes. 



Stamens. — Ten, with slender filaments; anthers at- 

 tached to filaments below the middle. 



Pistil. — One; ovary five-celled, with erect style and a 

 five-lobed stigma. 



Fruit. — Globose, slightly five-lobed. 



Pollinated by bumblebees. Nectar-bearing. 



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