314 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



alternate with the lobes of the corolla. The anthers 

 are sometimes united around the style, opening 

 inwards, and are equal or unequal, and tipped with 

 hairs or not. The pistil is syncarpous. The style 

 is simple, tipped with a ring of hairs or clothed with 

 deciduous hairs. There are two to eight stigmas, or 

 as many as the carpels, hairy on the back. The 

 ovary is two- (or more) celled. The fruit is a capsule, 

 opening by different methods, or a berry. The seeds 

 are minute. 



The flowers contain honey, and the anthers are 

 ripe before the stigmas. The style has the pollen 

 shed on it by the anthers, and has a bunch of hairs 

 which collect it and present it. Afterwards the 

 stigma ripens, and may curl back and touch the 

 pollen. 



The seeds are wind-dispersed. 



43. The Heath Group (Summary). 



(Introduciory Volume^ p. 131.) 

 According to some authorities the Whortleberries 

 are placed in a separate order — Vacciniacese — to the 

 Heath group or order Ericaceae. As a type of the 

 latter or suborder Erice^ the Cross-leaved Heath was 

 described in the Introductory Volume. In this volume 

 a type of the suborder Vacciniese or Vaccinium Vitis- 

 Idcea is described. 



The order is a fairly large one, there being thirteen 

 hundred and fifty species and about fifty genera. 

 They are found principally in temperate and cold 



