CHAPTER LVI: THE HEATHS 



THh RHODODENDRON AND THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL 



Family Ericace^ 



Trees usually of small size and high ornamental value. 

 Leaves simple, alternate, mostly evergreen. Flowers perfect, 

 regular, in many-flowered clusters. Fruits, dry capsules or 

 berry-like drupes. 



KEY TO GENERA AND SPECIES 



A. Leaves evergreen or sub-evergreen. 



B. Flowers large, showy; fruit a 5-celled capsule. 

 C. Capsules conical; flower clusters terminal. 



I. Genus RHODODENDRON, Linn. 



{R. maximum) great rhododendron 

 CC. Capsules globular; flower clusters axillary. 



2. Genus KALMIA, Linn. 



{K. latifolia) mountain laurel 

 BB. Flowers small, in compound racemes; fruit a fleshy 

 drupe; bark shed in thin scales. 



3. Genus ARBUTUS, Linn. 



C. Bark red to brown; leaves oval. 



D. Fruit orange red, ^ inch in diameter. 



(A. Men{iesii) madrona 

 DD. Fruit dark red, J inch in diameter. 



(A. Xalapensis) Mexican madrona 

 CC. Bark red to pale grey; leaves lanceolate. 



{A. Ariionica) Arizona madrona 

 AA. Leaves deciduous; flowers small, numerous, in terminal 

 compound racemes; fruit a conical 5-celled capsule. 



4. Genus OXYDENDRUM, DC. 



(O. arhoreum) sourwood 



The heath family is world-wide in distribution, consisting 

 of more than fifty genera, with over a thousand species, and 

 modified through centuries of cultivation into unnumbered 



417 



