1884.] BEAUTIES OF BBITISH TBEES. 319 



appear the sparse clusters of inconspicuous blossoms. Tliey are not 

 half an inch across, and are of a pale green colour, but are remarkable 

 from the regularly tetramerous arrangement of their parts, four over- 

 lapping sepals, four petals alternating with them, four stamens, and 

 an ovary made up of four carpels. 



The whole plant has an unpleasant odour when bruised, and it is 

 not tiU the wane of the year that it displays the real charm of * the 

 fruit, which in our winter woodlands looks a flower.' 



The leaves often turn crimson in autumn ; but the fleshy, four- 

 lobed fruit is the most distinctive beauty of the tree, resembling as it 

 does a cross of coral, which bursts to disclose one of the most daring 

 of ISTature's colour contrasts. This is the deep orange-red * aril ' or 

 fleshy covering to each of the seeds, resembling in structure, colour 

 and function the mace of the nutmeg. Its function is apparently to 

 render the seed more attractive to birds, thus ensuring its dissemina- 

 tion ; but undoubtedly, as in the parallel case of the pale blue 

 blossoms amidst the vivid green foliage of Love-in-a-mist (Nigella 

 sativa), the deft brush of the INIaster- Artist has also secured by a bold 

 contrast an effect most pleasing to the human eye. 



The wood, being so hard and tough that it can be cut as fine as a 

 needle, is used for a variety of purposes, fine gunpowder charcoal, 

 spindles, skewers, shoe pegs, &c. ; but the uncommon character of 

 the fruit gives it a good claim to a place in the shrubbery. Its 

 evergreen Japanese congener {E. japonicus), sometimes variegated 

 with wdiite or yellow, and luxuriating in sea breezes, as at our 

 southern watering-places, is a well-known plant, and ably withstands 

 our severest winters and the more deadly London smoke, but does 

 not flower or fruit. 



The Steawbekry-Teee (Arbutus unedo). — Numerous are the points 

 of interest attaching to the tree now perhaps as well known by its 

 classical name of Arbutus as by the vernacular ' Strawberry-tree.' A 

 native of the Mediterranean region, and not of northern Europe, 

 it is nevertheless in all probability truly indigenous at Killarney, 

 Mucross and Bantry. It thus forms one of eleven species, classed 

 by Professor Edward Forbes as ' Asturian,' because their nearest 

 habitat to the British Isles is in the remon of 'the Asturias. Of 

 these eleven, six are Saxifrages, one a Kock-cress (Arabis ciliata), the 

 remaining four all belonging to the Heath tribe, viz., Menziesia 

 ccendea, the Cornish and Mediterranean heaths [Erica ^pagans 

 and E. Mediterranea), and the Arbutus. So the Arbutus belongs 

 to that great Heath family to which we also refer the beautiful Azaleas, 

 Pthododeudrons and Kalmias, of our gardens, not to speak of the 

 many kinds of Heath and the humbler and less closely related 

 Cranberries and Whortleberries. 



