456 ERICACEAE. Cassiope. 



A peculiar genus of ten species, of the northern frigid regions, extending southward only along 

 high mountains, mainly American and Asiatic, two reaching high northern Europe, five North 

 American. 



1. C. Mertensiana, Don. Branches ascending, in tufts, 6 to 12 inches high, 

 covered throughout with the leaves, which are appre'ssed and closely imbricated in 

 four ranks, thick, smooth, not over 2 lines long, ovate-oblong, keeled on the back : 

 peduncles lateral : corolla moderately 5-lobed : style rather slender. Andromeda 

 Mertensiana, Bongard, Veg. Bitch, t. 5. A. cupressina, Hook. Fl. ii. 38. 



In the Sierra Nevada, at or above 10,000 feet, from Mount Dana to Lassen's Peak (Brewer, 

 Bolander, &c.) ; thence to Alaska. Corolla 3 lines high and 4 broad. 



C. TETRAGONA, Don, which reaches Oregon and the Rocky Mountains, is very similar, except 

 that there is a deep groove down the back of the leaf, and the flower is rather smaller. 



7. BRYANTHUS, Steller, Gray. (Incl. PHYLLODOCE, Salisb.) 



Calyx of 5 or rarely 4 sepals, imbricated in the bud. Corolla campanulate and 

 more or less deeply lobed, or ovate, and barely 5-toothed ; the lobes or teeth widely 

 spreading or recurved. Stamens 10 or 8 (rarely fewer) : filaments filiform : anthers 

 opening by terminal oblique chinks. Style slender : stigma 5 - 4-lobed, or nearly 

 entire. Capsule globular, septicidally 5 - 4-valved from the summit. Dwarf ever- 

 greens ; with woody stems thickly beset with linear obtuse Heath-like leaves ; the 

 flowers in a short raceme or umbel-like cluster from the summit of shoots of the pre- 

 ceding year, each pedicel from the axil of a firm foliaceous bract. Gray, Proc. Am. 

 Acad. vii. 367. 



Consists of several arctic-alpine species. Dr. Maximowicz, perhaps with sufficient reason, 

 would retain Phyllodoce, and Bryanthus, notwithstanding our B. Breweri, on account of the 

 4-merous flowers, deeply parted corolla, and naked exserted common peduncle of B. Gmclini. 

 But the new Californian species differs about as much from the true Phyllodoces as from the 

 original Bryanthus, agreeing with the latter conspicuously in its deeply cleft corolla and long- 

 exserted stamens. 



On the other hand, Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum proposes to solve the difficulty 

 by cutting the knot, and the series, in the middle, referring to Bryanthus all the species with 

 open-campanulate corolla, and only these : under this view both of the species known in California 

 would belong to Bryanthus, to an intermediate section, which may be named PARABKYANTHUS : 

 corolla open-campanulate, more or less 5-cleft or lobed : no common peduncle. 



1. B. Breweri, Gray, 1. c. Stems rigid, ascending, a span to a foot high : 

 leaves smooth or nearly so (3 to 7 lines long), narrowly linear, obtuse ; the margins 

 strongly revolute : flowers at first as if umbellate, at length rather racemose : foli- 

 aceous bracts ovate or lanceolate : pedicels glandular, soon longer than the flowers : 

 sepals glabrous : corolla rose-purple, almost saucer-shaped, 5-cleft fully to the mid- 

 dle : stamens (7 to 10) and style much exserted. 



High and rocky summits in the Sierra Nevada, at 10,000 feet and upwards, from Mariposa to 

 Sierra Co., Brewer, Torrcy, Bolander, &c. The handsomest species of the genus. 



2. B. empetriformis, Gray, 1. c. A span or so in height, more branched than 

 the preceding : umbellate flowers much smaller : corolla (hardly over 2 lines long) 

 rose-color, campanulate; its lobes much shorter than the tube : stamens included : 

 style sometimes exserted. Menziesia empetriformis, Smith ; Graham in Bot. Mag. 

 t. 3176. M. Grahami, Hook. Fl. ii. 40. Phyllodoce empetriformis, Don. 



Rocks on Mount Shasta, at 8, 000 feet and higher, Brewer. Also high northward and in the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



8. KALMIA, Linn. AMERICAN LAUREL. 



Calyx of 5 nearly distinct sepals imbricated in the bud. Corolla wheel-shaped or 

 saucer-shaped, with 5 short lobes, and beneath these 10 small pouches, in which the 



