90 MYRICA MYRSINE 



hardier than the true cerifera, and probably is grown under that name in 

 many gardens. 



M. GALE, Linnceus. SWEET GALE. 



(Gale palustris, Chevalier,'} 



A deciduous shrub, 2 to 4 ft. high, bushy; wood and leaves fragrant when 

 crushed. Leaves oblanceolate, tapering and entire at the base, toothed and 

 broadest near the apex ; i to i\ ins. long, \ to f in. wide ; glossy and dark 

 green above ; paler, more or less downy, and with scattered shining glands 

 beneath ; stalk \ in. long. Flowers of the male plant produced during May 

 and June in crowded, stalkless catkins, each catkin \ to f in. long, set with 

 close, overlapping, shining, concave scales. Fruit catkins about as long, but 

 stouter ; composed of closely set, resinous nutlets ^ m - wide. The flowers 

 are borne on the naked wood of the previous year ; the sexes usually on 

 separate plants. 



Native of the higher latitudes of all the northern hemisphere ; common in 

 Great Britain, especially in the north, usually in moist peaty places, and on 

 moors. In gardens the sweet gale is sometimes grown for the sake of its 

 pleasant fragrance when handled. On the Yorkshire moors branches were, 

 and perhaps still are, used to flavour a kind of home-made beer known as 

 " gale beer," considered to be very efficacious for slaking thirst. 



Var. TOMENTOSA. Young wood, both surfaces of the leaf (but especially 

 the lower one), very downy. 



MYRICARIA GERMANICA, Desvaux. TAMARICACE^. 



A deciduous shrub, 6 to 8 ft. high, glaucous grey, and of rather gaunt 

 habit. Branches erect, plume-like, clothed with flat, round-pointed, 

 linear leaves, from T ^ to ^ in. long. Flowers densely set in slender 

 racemes 3 to 8 ins. long, which terminate the branchlets all over the 

 top of the shrub ; each flower is about J in. long, produced in the axil 

 of a bract longer than itself; petals narrow, pink or pinkish white. 

 Stamens ten ; seeds feathery. 



Native of Europe, Himalaya, Afghanistan, etc. ; cultivated in England 

 since 1582. It inhabits river banks, mountain streams, and other sandy, 

 occasionally inundated places, where it often fills the ground over long 

 distances. Closely allied to Tamarix (from which it differs chiefly in the 

 more numerous and united stamens), it is not so ornamental as various 

 members of that genus. It is easily propagated by cuttings made of stout 

 wood of the current year placed in sandy soil in the open ground in 

 October. It flowers from May to August. 



MYRSINE AFRICAN A, Linnceus. MYRSINACE^:. 



An evergreen shrub, usually from i to 3 ft. high, bushy, and very 

 leafy; young shoots angled, covered with short down. Leaves alternate, 

 about \ in. apart on the twigs, oval to narrowly obovate, rounded or 

 tapering at the apex, always tapered at the base ; J to f in. long, T \ to J in. 

 wide ; toothed at the terminal half only, smooth on both surfaces, lustrous 

 dark green above ; stalk downy, T \- in. long. Flowers of one sex only on 



