62 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
Specir. Cuar.—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, ever- 
green, 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 the base with a short acute bract, and 
two minute ones at the sides. Sepals five, roundish, reddish, and persistent. Corolla ovate or urceolate, white witha 
reddish tinge, transparent at base, contracted at the mouth, hairy inside, with five short reflexed sesments. Stamens 
very slightly adhering to the base of the corolla. Filaments hairy. Anthers each with two horns and two pores. 
Ovary round. Style straight, longer than the stamens. Stigma simple. Disk a black indented ring. Fruit succu- 
lent, globular, depressed, deep red, approaching scarlet, with an insipid mealy pulp, and five seeds, which cohere strongly 
together, so as to appear like the nucleus of a drupe. (Lindley.) 
The Bearberry is found in Northern Europe, Asia, and in America. It grows in the United States in barren 
soil like heather. In New Jersey it is abundant. It flowers in May and June. 
The leaves constitute the officinal portion; in the dried state they are smooth, shining and pale green, reticulated 
beneath. They have an astringent taste, and a very slight odour. ‘The leaves of the Boz (Buxus sempervirens) and 
of the red whortleberry (Vaccinium vitis idea) are sometimes mixed with them. 
According to Meissner they contain tannin and gallic acids, resin, oxidized extractive and salts. 
The medical properties are those of an astringent and diuretic, useful in cases of chronic mucous affections of the 
bladder. As a solvent for stone the article had some reputation, but the beneficial effects in lithiatic disease are merely 
alterative. 
Piate LII.—Represents the plant in flower, the dissected flower, and fruit. 
PYROLASEA, 
LINDLEY. 
WINTER GREEN TRIBE. 
4 
KEssentiaL Cuar.—Calyz free, four, more frequently five, partite, persistent. Petals five, free or cohering, peri- 
gynous, with an imbricated estivation. Stamens twice the number of the petals, to which they are not adherent. 
Anthers bilocular, dehiscing by two pores. Ovarium three to five-celled, seated on a hypogynous disk. Style one. 
Stigma roundish or lobed, sometimes slightly indusiate. Capsule three to five-celled, three to five-valved, loculucidal, 
dehiscent. Placente adherent at the centre. Seeds indefinite, minute, with a pellicle indusiate or winged. Embryo 
minute at the base of fleshy albumen, with moderately distinct cotyledons. (De Candolle.) 
This tribe is composed of herbs the natives of North Europe, Asia and America. They have been separated from 
Ericacee by Lindley, but have somewhat similar medical properties. 
CHIMAPHILA UMBELLATA. 
NUTTALL. 
PIPSISSEWA. 
Pyrota UmBetiata.—Linneus. Cumaputa CorymBosa.—Pursh. 
Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia. 
_ Gen. Cuar.— Calyx five-cleft. Petals five, spreading, deciduous. Stamens ten; two in front of each petal. 
Filaments dilated in the middle. Ovarium rounded, obconical, obtusely angular, umbilicated at the apex. Style very 
short, concealed in the umbilicus of the ovary. Stigma orbicular, tuberculated, five-crenate. Cells of the capsule de- 
hiscent at the apex; the valves not connected by tomentum. (De Candolle.) 
Srtctr- Cuar.—Rhizoma woody, creeping. Stems ascending, somewhat angular, and marked with the scars of 
eae die : 
. 
a 
