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ERICACEAE. 



AECTOSTAPHYLOS. Red Bearberry. 

 (Family Ericaceae). 



Dwarf northern shrubs, as here 

 considered: evergreen. Twigs 

 slender, somewhat 3- or 5-sided: 

 pith small, slightly angled, con- 

 tinuous. Buds solitary, sessile, 

 ovoid, with about 3 exposed scales 

 or the uppermost showing a larger 

 number. Leaf-scars alternate, 

 somewhat elevated, small, cres- 

 cent-shaped: bundle-trace 1: sti- 

 pule-scars lacking. Leaves spatu- 

 late, rather small. 



The bearberry is one of the 

 plants that are characteristically 

 limited to the South and that in 

 high latitudes occur in Europe and 

 Asia as well as America. In an 

 account of the biology of the 

 region north of Saskatchewan and 

 Alberta, published as No. 27 of 

 North American Fauna, Preble 



states that the natives smoke the dried leaves of the bear- 

 berry, usually mixed with tobacco; and they are somewhat 

 used medicinally. 

 Twigs puberulent, the bark finally exfoliating. A. Uva-ursi. 



