(HEATH FAMILY.) 301 



21. LOISELEUBIA, Desv. ALPINE AZALEA. 



Calyx 5-parted, nearly as long as the rather bell-shaped and deeply 5-cleft reg- 

 ular corolla. Stamens 5, not declined, included : anthers opening lengthwise. 

 Style short. Pod ovoid, 2 - 3-celled, many-seeded, 2 - 3-valved ; the valves 2- 

 cleft from the apex : placentae borne on the middle of the columella. A small 

 depressed evergreen shrubby plant, much branched and tufted, smooth, with 

 coriaceous opposite elliptical leaves, on short petioles, with revolute margins. 

 Flowers small, white or rose-color, 2 - 5 in a cluster, from a terminal scaly bud ; 

 the scales or bracts thick and persistent. (Named for Loiseleur Delongchamps, a 

 French botanist.) 



1. L. prOGTimbens, Desv. ( Azalea procumbens, L.) Alpine summits 

 of the White Mountains, New Hampshire, on rocks. June. (Eu.) 



22. LEIOPHYLLTJM, Pers. SAND MYRTLE. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla of 5 distinct obovate-oblong petals, spreading. Sta- 

 mens 10, exserted : anthers opening lengthwise. Pod 2 -3-celled, splitting from 

 the apex downward, many-seeded. A low much-branched evergreen, with the 

 aspect, foliage, &c. of the preceding genus, but the crowded leaves sometimes al- 

 ternate, scarcely petioled. Flowers small, white, in terminal umbel-like clusters. 

 (Name formed of Xeios, smooth, and <f)v\\ov, foliage, from the leaves.) 



1 . L. buxifblium, Ell. Sandy pine barrens of New Jersey, and moun- 

 tain-tops in Virginia ? and southward. May. Shrub 6' - 10' high : leaves 

 oval or oblong, smooth and shining, 3" - 6" long. 



23. P^BOLA, Tourn. WINTERGREEN. SHIN-LEAF. 



Calyx 5-parted, persistent. Petals 5, concave and more or less converging, 

 deciduous. Stamens 10 : filaments awl-shaped, naked : anthers extrorse in the 

 bud, but in the flower inverted by the inflexion of the apex of the filament, more 

 or less 4-celled, opening by a pair of pores at the blunt or somewhat 2-horned 

 base which by the inversion becomes the apparent apex ! Style generally long : 

 stigma 5-lobed or 5-rayed. Pod depressed-globose, 5-lobed, 5-celled, 5-valved 

 from the base upwards (loculicidal) ; the valves cobwebby on the edges. Seeds 

 minute, innumerable, resembling saw-dust, with a very loose cellular-reticulated 

 coat. Low and smooth perennial herbs, with running subterranean shoots, 

 bearing a cluster of rounded and petioled evergreen root-leaves, and a simple 

 raceme of nodding flowers, on an upright more or less scaly-bracted scape. 

 (Name a diminutive of Pyrus, the Pear-tree, from some fancied resemblance 

 in the foliage, which is not obvious.) 



1. Stamens ascending: style turned down and towards the apex usually more or less 

 curved upwards, longer than the campanulate-connivent or somewhat expanding 

 petals : stigma much narrower than the truncate and somewhat excavated apex of 

 the style which forms a sort of ring or collar, the 5 lobes at first very short and in- 

 cluded, at length usually protruded. (Leaves denticulate or entire.) 

 1. P. rotundif61ia, L. Leaves orbicular, thick, shining, usually shorter 

 than the petiole ; raceme elongated, many-flowered ; calyx-lobes lanceolate or oblong- 



