474 Gaultheria procumbens. 
since the real name of the physician whom it was designed to ho- 
nour, was Gautier, unless by latinizing the French Gawier, which is 
Gualtherius. nthe Am. Acad. there is a paper by L. J. Chenon, en- 
titled Nova Plantarum Genera, in which the plant now under conside- 
ration is described, and itis there said that it is called after Dr. Gaul- 
thier. As the genus is now universally spelled Gaultheria, it is not 
expedient to alter its orthography: but as in Pursh’s plate of Gaulthe- 
ria Shallon, in Shoepf’s Materia Medica, and in some other botani- 
cal works, the different orthography Gualtheria has been used, it 
is proper to notice it in this place. The specific appellation 
is not very appropriate ; for, though the stems frequently are bent 
in the manner of one or two represented in the plate, thereby having 
the appearance, among dead leaves and loom, of being procum- 
bent, yet the upright position of the stem, as shewn in the other 
examples of the figure, is equally common, 
1s root is creeping, horizontal, and very long, sending up at 
t distances, one, and sometimes two, stems. The stem seldom 
~~ exceeds a span in height; is round, of a reddish colour, and termi- 
‘nated by a few evergreen oval, smooth, ‘shining, coriaceous leaves, 
paler underneath, and somewhat spreading. They have a few 
acuminated or aristated serratures, and short red petioles. They 
vary in size, as represented in the drawing. The flowers are ge- 
nerally solitary, seldom exceeding’3 or 5 on a stem, and supported 
by curved drooping peduncles, of a. yellowish-green hue. Calix 
five-toothed, furnished with two bracts at the base, which have by 
9 $ 
. 
