Ericaceae. 



Daboecia. St. Dabeoc's Heath. 

 (Family Ericaceae). 



Compact small heath-like 

 shrubs: evergreen. Twigs slender, 

 round, the bark soon shredding: 

 pith minute, roundish, continuous. 

 Buds solitary, subglobose, with 

 about 2 scales, commonly develop- 

 ing a pair of narrow leaves 

 promptly. Leaf - scars alternate, 

 minute, low, crescent-shaped : 

 bundle-trace 1; stipule-scars lack- 

 ing. The fruit, if present, is of 

 relatively large rather conical 

 glandular-bristly capsules with 

 very acute valves. Leaves simple 

 and entire, small, elliptical or 

 somewhat ovate, slightly revolute, 

 densely white- or rusty-tomentu- 

 lose beneath. 



St. Dabeoc's heath, as the com- 

 mon name indicates, occurs in Ire- 

 land and has been supposed to be 

 peculiar to the Emerald Isle; but it is found occasionally as 

 far south as the Mediterranean, and on the oceanic Azores. 

 Twigs transiently puberulent and sparsely hairy. D. polifolia. 



