ERICACEAE. (HEATH FAMILY.) 293 



5. EPIGJEA, L. GROUND LAUREL. TRAILING ARBUTUS. 



Corolla salver-form; the tube hairy inside, as long as the ovate-lanceolate 

 pointed and scale-like nearly distinct sepals. Stamens 10, with slender filaments : 

 anthers oblong, awnless, opening lengthwise. Style slender, its apex (as in 

 Pyrola) forming a sort of ring or collar around and partly adnate to the 5 little 

 lobes of the stigma. Pod depressed-globular, 5-lobed, 5-celled, many-seeded. 

 A prostrate or trailing scarcely shrubby plant, bristly with rusty hairs, with ever- 

 green and reticulated rounded and heart-shaped alternate leaves, on slender peti- 

 oles, and with rose-colored flowers in small axillary clusters, from scaly bracts. 

 (Name composed of eVi, upon, and yrj, the earth, from the trailing growth.) 



1. E. repens, L. Sandy woods, or sometimes in rocky soil, especially 

 in the shade of pines: common in many places, especially eastward. Flowers 

 appearing in early spring, exhaling a rich spicy fragrance. In New England 

 called MAYFLOWER. 



6. GAULTHERIA, Kalm. AROMATIC WINTERGREEN. 



Corolla cylindrical-ovoid or a little urn-shaped, 5-toothed. Stamens 10, in- 

 cluded : anther-cells each 2-awned at the summit, opening by a terminal pore. 

 Pod depressed, 5-lobed, 5-celled, 5-valved, many-seeded, enclosed when ripe by 

 the calyx, which thickens and turns fleshy, so as to appear as a globular red 

 berry ! Shrubs, or almost herbaceous plants, with alternate evergreen leaves 

 and axillary (nearly white) flowers : pedicels with 2 bractlets. (Dedicated by 

 Kalm to "Dr. Gaulihier" of Quebec; Linn. Amcen. Acad. 3, p. 15. The true 

 orthography, as ascertained by Prof. Brunet from the old records in Quebec, 

 is Gaultier ; so that the orthography of the genus, if changed at all, should be 

 GAULTIERA.) 



1. G. proctunbens, L. (CREEPING WINTERGREEN.) Stems slender 

 and extensively creeping on or below the surface ; the flowering branches ascend- 

 ing, leafy at the summit (3' -5' high) ; leaves obovate or oval, obscurely serrate ; 

 flowers few, mostly single in the axils, nodding. Cool damp woods, mostly in 

 the shade of evergreens especially northward, and southward along the Allegha- 

 nies. July. The bright red berries (formed of the calyx) and the foliage have 

 the well-known spicy-aromatic flavor of the Sweet Birch. In the interior of the 

 country it is called Wintergreen, or sometimes Tea-berry. Eastward it is called 

 Checkerberry or Partridge-berry (names also applied to Mitchella, the latter espe- 

 cially so), also Boxberry. 



7. LEUCOTHOE, Don. LEUCOTHOB. 



Calyx of 5 nearly distinct sepals, imbricated in the bud, not enlarged nor 

 fleshy in fruit. Corolla ovate or cylindraceous, 5-toothed. Stamens 10: an- 

 thers naked, or the cells with 1 or 2 erect awns at the apex, opening by a pore. 

 Pod depressed, more or less 5-lobed, 5-celled, 5-valved, the sutures not thick- 

 ened ; valves entire : the many-seeded placenta? borne on the summit of the short 

 columella, mostly pendulous. Shrubs with petioled and serrulate leaves, and 

 white scaly-bracted flowers crowded in axillary or terminal spiked racemes. (A 

 mythological name.) 



