Arbutus 559 



2. Arbutus hybrida, Ker-Gawler. A hybrid. 



Leaves slightly glaucous beneath ; petiole \ inch. Older branchlets fawn- 

 coloured, smooth. 



B. Leaves entire. Young branchlets glabrous. 



3. Arbutus Andrachne, Linnaeus. Albania, Greece, Asia Minor, Crimea, Caucasus. 



Leaves slightly glaucous beneath, contracted into short broad points at the 

 apex, tapering at the base in cultivated trees ; petiole \ inch. 



4. Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh. Western N. America, from British Columbia to 



California. 

 Leaves glaucous, almost white, beneath ; rounded or with a minute sharp point 

 at the apex ; sub-cordate or rounded at the base ; petiole i inch. 



ARBUTUS UNEDO, Strawberry Tree 



Arbutus Unedo, Linnxus, .>. /'Z. 395 (1753); honAon, Arb. et. Frut. Brit. n. 11 17 (1838); Boswell- 

 Syme, Eng. Bot. vi. 28, t. 882 (1866); Hooker, Stud. Fl. Brit. Islands, 243 (1878); Mathieu, 

 Flore Forestiere, 225 (1897). 



Unedo edulis, Hoffmannsegg et Link, Fl. Fort. i. 415 (1S09). 



A small tree, attaining in Ireland 40 feet in height and 10 feet or more in girth, 

 usually a shrub in the Mediterranean region. Bark rough, brownish-red, more or 

 less fissured, and only rarely scaling off in part. Young branchlets reddish or green, 

 covered with gland-tipped hairs, which persist in the second year ; older branchlets 

 brown, rough, slightly Assuring on the surface. Buds minute, reddish ; scales 

 imbricated, ovate, acute, ciliate. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long by i to 2 inches broad, 

 very variable in shape, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, elliptic, or ovate, acute at the apex, 

 tapering at the base ; upper surface dark-green, glabrous and shining ; lower surface 

 pale-green, glabrous, with prominent midrib and inconspicuous pinnate-reticulate 

 venation ; margin serrate or biserrate, the serrations acute or rounded. Petioles 

 short, about \ inch long, glandular-pubescent. 



Flowers appearing in autumn, inodorous, in short drooping glabrous terminal 

 panicles. Calyx - lobes minute, triangular. Corolla usually white, rarely pinkish, 

 urceolate, with rounded ciliated teeth ; ovary glabrous. Fruit ripening in the follow- 

 ing autumn, at the same time as the appearance of the flowers of the succeeding 

 year ; a stalked berry, pendulous, sub-globose, f inch in diameter, orange-scarlet, 

 densely covered with minute pyramidal spine-like excrescences, edible, superficially 

 resembling a strawberry, but entirely different in structure. 



Seedling. Cotyledons two, raised above ground on a short caulicle, oval, 

 rounded at the apex, abruptly narrowed at the base into a flat petiole, entire, |- inch 

 long, dull -green above, pale -green beneath. Young stem reddish, with short 

 glandular hairs ; primary leaves alternate, minute, oval or obovate, serrate and 

 minutely glandular-pubescent in margin ; tap-root about 2 or 3 inches long. 



