BAYBERRY FAMILY 



Fruit. Nuts in imbricated heads; each nut uvo-winged by 

 means of two fleshy ovate scales which are attached at the base. 



Although a denizen of cold northern swamps, the 

 Sweet Gale is wonderfully tolerant of changed con- 

 ditions, and will grow on a dry, gravelly, exposed 

 ridge. Like the Bayberry, the leaves are densely cov- 

 ered with small resinous dots which are the source of 

 their fragrance. 



BAYBERRY. WAXBERRY 



Myrica carolinhisis. Merica cerifera. 

 Myrica, the ancient name of an unknown shrub. 



Stiff, crooked, growing in miniature thickets ; found in every 

 variety of situation and soil ; from dry, rocky hills to sandy 

 plains, from the border of marshes to the edge of the sea-shore ; 

 varies from three to eight feet in height. Ranges near the coast 

 from Nova Scotia to Florida and Alabama; sparingly found on 

 the borders of the Great Lakes. 



Bark. Brownish gray, dark and pale irregularly mixed ; 

 young stems golden brown, somewhat hairy and covered with 

 resinous dots. Leaf buds minute, globular, reddish brown. 



Leaves. Alternate, or irregularly scattered or tufted, simple, 

 two to three and one-half inches long, obovate or oblong, nar- 

 rowed at the base, entire, or with three or four serrate teeth near 

 the apex which bears a tiny point at the end. They come out 

 of the bud revolute, pale green tinged with red, shining, covered 

 with white woolly hairs, thickly covered with pale amber resi- 

 nous dots ; appear rather late ; when full grown are leathery, 

 shining, bright green, resinous, dotted on both sides, fragrant. 

 In autumn they darken to a bronze purple or fall with little 

 change of color. 



Fhnvers. May. Dioecious, individual flowers without calyx 

 or corolla, solitary on a scale-like bract. Staminate flowers ex- 

 pand with the leaves, borne in stiff, erect catkins less than an 

 inch long, on last year's wood ; scales roundish, loose ; stamens 



440 



