676 



DIOECIA DIANDRIA. 



/ 



1 



CERATIOLA. Mich. 



Masculi, Qalyx im- 

 bricatus, squamis plu- 



Corolla 

 0. Stamina 2, exserta. i roUa 0. 



riinis 



8.) 



lyx 



Sterile Jlorets, 



Ca 



imbricate, scales 



numerous (6 



8.) 



Co- 



Stamens 



Foeminei. 



imbricatus, 



Calyx 

 squamis 



plurirais. Corolla 0. 

 Stylus \, b re vis. 



exserted. 



Stig' 



ma inaequaliter multi 



lyx 



Fertile Jlorets* 



Ca- 



imbricate, scales 



partitura 

 sperm a. 



Bacca 2- 



numerous. Corolla 0. 

 Style 1, short. Stigma 

 unequally many-part- 

 ed. Berry 2-seeded. 



1. EmcoiDEs. Mich. 



V 



4 



Mich. 2. p. 222- Sp. pi. 4. p. 712. Pursh, 1. p. 21. Nutt. 2. p. 232. 



An evergreen shrub, 4 — 8 feet high, branches virgate, somewhat verticil- 

 late; when young tomentose. Leaves linear, glabrous, rigidj with the mar- 

 gins revolute, 6—8 lines long, verticillate, 3 —4 in each whorl. FloiGers 

 axillary, verticillate, sessile. Scales of the calyx tomentose on the margin, 

 persistent. Berry small, yellowish, 2-seecied, somewhat persistent. Seed 

 hard. 



This singular plant, which resembles the genus Erica so much in its ap- 

 pearance and habit, though not in its seminal aflSnities, grows generally in 

 the most dry and sandy soils. Near Murphy's Bridge, on the Edisto River, 

 it covers a space of 3 or 400 yards wide and two or three miles long, which 

 appears to have been a sand bank formed by some of the antient freshets of 

 that river, and on which only lichens and a kv^ stunted oaks (Q. Catesb^i 

 and Nigra) are found intermingled with it. Near Augusta, Mr. Nuttall. St, 

 Mary's, Pursh. On the sand-hills between Camden and Columbia. 



Flowers August and September? The berries are ripe in November. 



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