ERICACEAE. 



ARCTOSTAPHYLOS. 



Sepals 5, scale-like, green, spreading. Corolla ventricose, 

 5-toothed. Stamens 10, inserted round a plaited hypogynous 

 disk ; anthers opening by pores, with 2 awns at the apex. Fruit 

 succulent, smooth, drupaceous ; putamen many-celled ; cells 

 1 -seeded. 



785. A. Uva ursi Spreng. syst. ii. 287- — Arbutus Uva Ursi 

 Linn. fl. lapp. 162. t. 6. f. 3. Woodv. i. t. 70. Eng. Bot. t. 714. 

 Bigel. med. bot. i. t. 6. — Barren gravelly hills and dry sandy 

 woods in the north of Europe and America. (Bearberry.) 



Stem woody, trailing, and rooting, the young shoots only turning 

 upwards. Bark deciduous, and peeling off from the old stems. Leaves 

 alternate, obovate, acute at base, attached by short petioles, coriaceous, 

 evergreen, glabrous, shining above, paler beneath, entire, and in the 

 young ones pubescent, the margin rounded, but scarcely reflexed. 

 Flowers terminal, clustered. Pedicels reflexed, furnished at base with a 

 short acute bract, and 2 minute ones at the sides. Sepals 5, roundish 

 reddish and persistent. Corolla ovate or urceolate, white with a reddish 

 tinge, transparent at base, contracted at the mouth, hairy inside, with 5 

 short reflexed segments. Stamens very slightly adhering to the base of 

 the corolla ; filaments hairy ; anthers each with 2 horns and 2 pores. 

 Ovary round; style straight, longer than the stamens : stigma simple. 

 Disk a black indented ring. Fruit succulent, globular, depressed, deep 

 red, approaching scarlet, with an insipid mealy pulp, and about 5 seeds, 

 which cohere strongly together, so as to appear like the nucleus of a 

 drupe. — Leaves astringent and rather bitter. Used in nephritic and 

 calculous cases ; of very doubtful action in the latter, but believed to be 

 a decided palliative in nephritic paroxyms. Also employed in dysuria, 

 catarrhus vesicas, leucorhcea and gonorrhoea. Exhibited in the form 

 of decoction and powder of the leaves. Its action is slow, and it 

 therefore requires to be given for a considerable period ; although the 

 effects are uncertain they sometimes give astonishing relief. Pereira. 



LOISELEURIA. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla short, campanulate, 5-cleft. Stamens 

 5, equal, inclosed ; cells of anthers bursting longitudinally. 

 Style inclosed. Capsules 5-celled, 5-valved, with bifid pointed 

 valves and a loculicidal dehiscence. 



786. L. procumbens Desv. journ. bot. iii. 35. R. and S. 

 iv. 353. — Azalea procumbens Linn.fl. lapp. xc. t. 6. f. 2. Eng. 

 Bot. t. 865. Torrey.fl. i. 233. Chamceledon procumbens Link, 

 enum. i. 210. — Mountains of Europe from Lapland to the Me- 

 diterranean, and on the White Hills, Catskill, and other moun- 

 tainous ranges in North America. 



A small evergreen shrub, resembling Thyme. Stems caespitose, 3-4 

 inches long, branched, procumbent, rigid. Leaves opposite, elliptical, 



382 



