STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



mendations bestowed upon it. Though I did not care for 

 the decoction of the leaves, I was charmed with the beauty 

 of the plant when I first saw it growing on the banks of one 

 of the lakes north of Peterborough. The whole aspect of 

 this remarkable shrub is most interesting. In height it 

 varies from two to four feet; it is bushy in habit, but some- 

 what open and spreading; the leaves are lanceolate, entire, 

 very decidedly revolute at the margins, and clothed with a 

 dense rust-colored woolly felt beneath. The leaves are of a 

 thick leathery texture and dull brownish-green color. The 

 flowers are white, forming elegant umbel-like clusters at the 

 summits of the slender sprays. As the heads of flowers are 

 very abundant, this shrub forms a striking object when seen 

 growing in numbers along the banks of lakes or in low flats, 

 for it will flourish both on wet and dry situations, nor does it 

 refuse to flower when brought into garden culture. It is a 

 very ornamental object, deserving to be better known than 

 at present seems to be the case. The leaves when bruised 

 emit an agreeable resinous aromatic odor. 



The roots of the Labrador Tea are wiry and covered with 

 a bitter astringent bark. Professor Lindley also mentions, 

 in his " Natural System of Botany," the astringent qualities 

 of another member of the family Ledum palustre (L.), a 

 slightly smaller shrub with narrower leaves and oval instead 

 of oblong pods; the stamens, too, are uniformly ten instead 

 of five and seven as in this species. L. palustre is found in 

 the north of Europe and also in the far north in Canada. 



WILD ROSEMARY Andromeda polifolia (L.), 



is another of our native shrubs, and grows in peat bogs and 

 on the swampy margins of lakes, associated with Labrador 

 Tea, the Pitcher Plant and the elegant Low-bush Cranberry. 

 The stems are from three to eighteen inches in height, and 



192 



