450 ERICACEAE. Chiogenes. 



11. CHIOGENES. Salisb. in trans, hort. soc. Lond. 2. p. 94. creeping snowberry. 



Qlyciphtlla, Raf. Lasiebpa, TVwt. Pbalerocirpus, G. Dan. 

 [ From the Greek, chion, snow, and gennao, I generate ; in allusion to the snow-white berries.] 



Caljrx adherent to the lower half of the ovary, with two ovate connate bracteoles at the base ; 

 the limb 4-cleft. Corolla campanulate, 4-lobed. Stamens 8, included : filaments short and 

 dilated : anthers of two oblong cells, not produced into tubular appendages nor awned on 

 the back, each bicuspidate at the summit and opening by a large oblique aperture. Ovary 

 globose, surrounded with an 8-toothed disk, 4-celled ; the cells many-ovuled : style short : 

 stigma small, simple. Berry globose-ovoid, rather dry (white), crowned with the teeth of 

 the calyx, 4-celled ; the cells many-seeded. Seeds roundish-ovoid, compressed. — Stems 

 creeping, filiform ; the branches strigose-hispid. Leaves evergreen, roundish-ovate, acute, 

 with slightly revolute margins, smooth above, sparsely hispid. Flowers solitary, axillary, 

 white, on short recurved pedicels. 



1. Chiogenes hispidula, Torr. S^ Gr. ined. (PI. Ixvlii.) Creeping Snowberry. 



C. serpyllifolia, Salisb. I. c. Vaccinium hispidulum, Linn. sp. 1. p. 352 (excl. syn.) ; 

 Michx. jl. 1. p. 228. t. 23. Arbutus filiformis. Lam. diet. 1. p. 228. A. thymifolia. Ait. 

 Kew. (ed. 1.) 2. p. 72. Oxycoccus hispidulus, Pers. syn. 1. p. 419 ; Nutt. gen. 1. p. 251. 

 Gaultheria serpyllifolia, Pursh, ft.l.p. 283. t 13 (bad). G. hispidula, Muhl. cat. p. 44 ; 

 Torr. ^. 1. p. 413 (subgen. Lasierpa) ; Bigel. Jl. Bost. p. 165 ; Beck, bot. p. 216 ; Hook. 

 Jl. Bar. -Am. 2. p. 36. Phalerocarpus serpyllifolia, G. Don, gen. syst. 3. p. 841 ; DC. 

 prodr. 7. p. 577. Lasierpa hispidula, Torr. in Geol report of N. York, 1 840, p. 1 52. 



Stems much branched ; the branches clothed with short appressed ferruginous bristly hairs. 

 Leaves 3-5 lines long, coriaceous, sprinkled underneath and on the margin with short 

 brownish hairs. Flowers scattered, small. Bracts resembling an exterior calyx of 2 sepals, 

 acute. Calyx greenish white, somewhat hispid ; the segments broad and acute. Corolla a 

 little larger than the calyx ; the segments acute. Stamens included ; the filaments roughish : 

 anther-lobes acuminate, with two short and often unequal awns at the tip. Ovary free from 

 the calyx above the middle, but in fruit adherent nearly to the summit, its free portion sur- 

 rounded at the base with a disk of eight small obtuse teeth ; the cells without a false partition 

 from the back ; the numerous ovules attached to oblong slightly projecting placentae. Berry 

 about one-fourth of an inch long, white, with a few short ferruginous hairs like those on the 

 leaves, sweetish and faintly aromatic, deciduous ; the dissepiments breaking away from the 

 axis at maturity. Testa of the seed crustaceous, closely investing the nucleus. Embryo 

 small and linear ; the cotyledons short. 



Sphagnous swamps, particularly on mountains, and under the shade of evergreen trees ; 

 common in the northern part of the State. Oriskany, &c. {Dr. Knieskern). 1 have not found 



