100-2 
some perennial herbs, all having alternate, simple, and undivided leaves, and no 
stipules. /Zowers symmetrical, 4- to 5-merous, perfect ; calyx imbricated or valvate 
in the bud. Corolla gamopetalous, or not rarely 4- to 5-petalous, regular or irregu- 
lar, hypogynous except in Vaccince, imbricated or convolute in the bud. Stamens 
free from the corolla or nearly so, as many or twice as many as its lobes; _/daments 
distinct; azthers introrse or becoming introrsely inverted, 2-celled, usually opening 
by pores or chinks, and generally awned or somehow appendaged ; Ao//en usually 
composed of 4 united grains. Ovary 4- to 1o-celled; placente axial, except in 
Monotropee ; ovules solitary or numerous, anatropous; s¢y/e single; ségma entire 
or merely lobed, except in Clethra, where it is 3-cleft. /7uz¢ capsular, baccate, or 
drupaceous; eméryo small or minute; albumen fleshy ; cotyledons small or unde- 
veloped. 
Our only proven species of this order, except the six represented in this 
work, are: The European, Asiatic, and British-American Labrador Tea (Ledum 
FPalustre, Linn.); and the Russian intoxicant and anti-rheumatic Yellow Rosebay 
(Rhododendron chrysanthemum, Linn.). 
Other medicinal species are: The American Rosebay (Rhododendron maxi-— 
mun, Willd.), an astringent, and by some accounted narcotic and poisonous; the 
Swiss &. ferrugineum, Linn., an antiarthritic; and the Persian R. ponticum, Linn., 
supposed to be one of the plants whose nectar renders the honey of Trebisond 
poisonous—an influence also said to be contributed to by Azalea pontica, Linn., 
of this order. The North American Alpine Azalea (Lovseleuria procumbens, Desv.) 
is, like all of the order, astringent; and Marsh Tea (Ledum latifolium, Ait.), used 
in dysentery, diarrhoea, tertian ague, and in some places to render beer heady, 
though it is said to bring on delirium. The fruit of the Strawberry Tree of the 
= Levant (Aréutus Unedo, Linn.), when made into wine, is said to be narcotic—a 
__ property also ascribed to the wine of Whortleberries (Vaccinium ulignosum, Linn.), 
which is very intoxicating. The leaves of the European and North American An- 
dromeda polifolia, Linn., are an acrid and dangerous narcotic, and are said to 
: ‘kill sheep if browsed upon. 
: ae _ Many species of the order furnish our tables with fine refreshing berries, Vis 
a The Blue Berry (Gaylussacia frondosa, T. & G.); the Huckleberry (G. restnosa, 
Soe T. & G.); the Blue Huckleberries : x 
stamineum, Linn., a 
