ERICACEZ. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 131 
ANDROMEDA FERRUGINEA. 
FLOWERS in axillary clusters; corolla globose; anthers destitute of appendagcs. 
Capsule 5-angled and ridged, the ridges separable in dehiscence. Leaves coriaceous, 
persistent, like the young branches lepidote-scurfy. 
Andromeda ferruginea, Walter, Fl. Car. 138 (1788). — Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. 33. — Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 
Willdenow, Spec. ii. 609. — Nouveau Duhamel, i. 190. — 10th Census U. S. ix. 96. 
Ventenat, Hort. Malm. 80, t. 80.— Persoon, Syn. i. Lyonia ferruginea, Nuttall, Gen. i. 266 (1818). — Don, 
480. — Du Mont de Courset, Bot. Cult. ed. 2, iii. 496. — Gen. Syst. iii. 830. — Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1899. —De Can- 
Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. i. 257. — Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. dolle, Prodr. vii. 600. — Koch, Dendr. ii. 122. — Lauche, 
i, 292. — Elliott, Sk. i. 489. — Chapman, Fl. 263. — Gray, Deutsche Dendr. ed. 2, 229. 
A tree, occasionally twenty to thirty feet in height, with a slender crooked or often prostrate 
trunk rarely ten inches in diameter, and thin rigid divergent branches which form a tall oblong irregu- 
lar head ; or often a shrub two or three feet high. The bark of the trunk, which varies from an eighth 
to a quarter of an inch in thickness, is divided into long narrow ridges by shallow longitudinal furrows, 
and is reddish brown on the surface, which separates into short thick scales, The branchlets, when they 
first appear, are thickly coated with minute ferrugineous scales, and in their second year are covered with 
glabrous or pubescent light or dark red-brown bark, which is smooth or exfoliates in small thin scales. 
The leaves are cuneate-obovate, rhombic-obovate, or cuneate-oblong, acute or rounded at the apex, and 
usually tipped with a cartilaginous mucro, gradually wedge-shaped at the base, and entire, with thickened 
revolute margins; when they unfold they are scurfy on both surfaces, but especially on the lower, and 
at maturity are thick and firm, pale green, smooth and shining or sometimes obscurely lepidote above, 
covered below with ferrugineous or pale scales, one to three inches long and a quarter of an inch to an 
inch and a half broad, with midribs and primary veins prominent on the upper as well as on the lower 
surface, and broad conspicuous reticulate veinlets ; they are borne on short thick petioles much enlarged 
at the base, and, appearing in early spring, do not fall before the summer or autumn of their second 
year. The flowers are chiefly produced on the branches of the year or occasionally on those of the 
previous year, and open from February until April, when the leaves are fully grown; they are borne in 
crowded axillary short-stemmed or sessile ferrugineous-lepidote fascicles, on slender recurved pedicels 
much shorter than the leaves, and are an eighth of an inch in diameter. The bracts and bractlets are 
minute, acute, and early deciduous. The calyx, which is covered on the outer surface with ferrugineous 
scales, is five-lobed, with acute lobes, and is a third as long as the globular white pubescent corolla, 
which is five-toothed, with short reflexed acute teeth slightly thickened and ciliate on the margins. The 
pubescent filaments are shortened by a conspicuous geniculate fold in the middle, and, like the short 
anthers attached just above the middle, are destitute of appendages. The ovary is coated with thick 
white tomentum; and the stout style, which is as long as the corolla or a little longer, is glabrous. 
The fruit is borne on a stout erect stem, and is an oblong five-angled capsule a quarter of an inch in 
length, with thickened ribs at the dorsal sutures, which separate from the valves when the capsule opens. 
From the placentas, borne at the apex of the columella or axis, a number of seeds are suspended ; these 
are minute, narrow-oblong, and are covered with a loose cellular-reticulate coat produced at both ends 
into short fringe-like wings. 
Andromeda ferruginea is distributed from the coast region of South Carolina to Cedar Keys on 
the west coast of Florida. It is said to inhabit the West Indies and Mexico, where it is reported 
from the region of San Luis Potosi as growing at elevations of from six to eight thousand feet above 
