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ERICACEAE. 



GAULTHERIA. Wintergreen. 

 (Family Ericaceae). 



Aromatic small shrubs, either 

 bushy or with short erect shoots 

 that are leafy toward the top: 

 evergreen. Twigs moderate, zig- 

 zag and 3-sided in the large type, 

 slender and rounded in the 

 smaller: pith relatively large, 

 honey-combed or finally spongy. 

 Buds solitary, sessile, ovuid, with 

 about 5 ciliate scales. Leaf-scars 

 alternate, minute and linear in 

 the smaller type, but half-round or 

 shield-shaped in the larger and 

 then with a large bundle-trace: 

 stipule-scars lacking. Leaves 

 simple, short-stalked, minutely 

 somewhat serrate. 



Wintergreen "berries'*, which re- 

 ally are soft-walled capsules en- 

 closed by a fleshy calyx, are some- 

 times brought into northern cities 

 by the Indians. 



Wintergreen and sweet birch are so similarly flavored as 

 to give rise to the impression that oil of Wintergreen and oil 

 of birch contain identical aromatic substances. The princi- 

 pal constituent in each is said to be methyl salicylate, but 

 the characteristic flavor is due to small quantities of an ester. 



1. Bushy: twigs sparsely hairy or papillate: buds large. 2. 

 With nearly simple short shoots from prostrate stems. 3. 



2. Upright: leaves ovate, round-based. (1). G. Shallon. 

 Spreading: leaves elliptical to obovate. G. Veitchiana. 



3. Loosely hairy: leaves ovate, round-based. G. Myrsinites. 

 Glabrate: leaves elliptical to obovate. (2). G. procumbens. 



