ERICACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 121 
ARBUTUS. 
FLoweErs perfect; calyx free from the ovary, 5-parted, the divisions imbricated 
in estivation; corolla gamopetalous, 5-toothed, the teeth imbricated in estivation ; 
stamens 10; ovary superior, 5 or rarely 4-celled; ovules numerous. Fruit drupaceous 
or baccate. Leaves alternate, persistent, destitute of stipules. 
Arbutus, Linnzus, G'en. 123 (1737). — Adanson, Fam. Pl. 247. — Endlicher, Gen. 756. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. 
ii. 165.— A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 160.— Meisner, Gen. ii. 581. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. xi. 191. 
Unedo, Hoffmannsegg & Link, FV. Port. i. 415 (1809). 
Trees or shrubs, with astringent bark exfoliating from young stems in large thin scales, smooth 
terete red branches, thick hard roots, and scaly buds. Leaves alternate, petiolate, entire or dentate, 
obscurely penniveined, persistent. Flowers small, in simple compound racemes or panicles. Pedicels 
clavate, bibracteolate at the base, developed from the axils of ovate bracts. Bracts and bractlets 
searious, scaly, persistent. Calyx five-parted nearly to the base, the divisions ovate, acute, scarious, 
persistent. Corolla hypogynous, globose or ovoid-urceolate, white, rose-colored, or greenish white, five- 
toothed, the teeth obtuse, recurved. Stamens ten, included ; filaments subulate, dilated and pilose at 
the base, free, inserted in the bottom of the corolla; anthers short, compressed laterally, attached on 
the back below the apex, dorsally two-awned, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening at the top ante- 
riorly by a terminal pore; pollen-grains compound. Ovary superior, glandular-roughened, glabrous 
or tomentose, sessile or slightly immersed in a glandular ten-lobed disk; style columnar, simple, exserted, 
stigmatose and obscurely five-lobed at the apex; ovules numerous, attached to a central placenta devel- 
oped from the inner angle of each cell, amphitropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit 
drupaceous or baccate,' globose, smooth or glandular-coated, five-celled, many-seeded ; exocarp firm, dry, 
and mealy ; endocarp cartilaginous, often incompletely developed. Seed small, compressed or angled, 
narrowed and often apiculate at the apex; testa coriaceous, dark red-brown, slightly pilose. Embryo 
axile in copious horny albumen, clavate; radicle terete, erect, turned towards the hilum. 
Ten or twelve species of Arbutus are distinguished; they inhabit the western and southern parts 
of North America, where in Mexico’ the largest number of species occur, Central America, eastern, 
southern, and southwestern Europe,’ Asia Minor,‘ northern Africa,’ and the Canary Islands. Three 
species grow naturally within the territory of the United States; two of these are Mexican, and find 
their most northern home just north of our southern boundary, one in Texas and the other in Arizona, 
and the third inhabits the coast forests of the Pacific states and British Columbia. 
Arbutus produces hard close-grained valuable wood often used as charcoal in the manufacture of 
gunpowder. In the south of Europe the strawberry-shaped fruits of the European and north African 
Arbutus Unedo" are eaten raw or cooked, and possess narcotic properties; the bark and leaves are 
1 The fruit of Arbutus has generally been described as baccate. ° Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. iii. 279. — 
That of the Old World Arbutus Unedo is usually a berry, although Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. ii. 276. 
it sometimes contains traces of a thin crustaceous imperfect endo- * Nyman, Conspect. Fl. Europ. 490. 
carp, which in Arbutus Andrachne is more developed. In the fruits * Boissier, FZ. Orient. iii. 965. 
of all the American species which I have been able to examine 5 Desfontaines, F7. Atlant. i. 340. 
there is a distinct more or less complete endocarp, which appears 6 Link, Buch Phys. Beschr. Canar. Ins. 146, 180.— Webb & Ber- 
to be most developed in Arbutus Menziesii, in which it is often a thelot, Phytogr. Canar. sec. iii. 11. 
distinct five-celled stone with thin papery walls. 7 Linnzeus, Spec. 395 (1753). — Nouveau Duhamel, i. 73, t. 21.— 
