THE BAYliERRY FAMILY. 107 



young stems and branchlets there is a rusty down which also occurs on the 

 under side of the leaves. When the plant is in fruit these woody parts are 

 silvery grey and harmonize well with the small balls of wax-covered fruit. 



M. Carolincnsis, wax berry, extends from Florida northward to Nova 

 Scotia and is through northern New Jersey a feature of bog life. There, in 

 colonial days, considerable wax was produced from its fruit, a practice which 

 still in New England is more or less prevalent. The shrub attains from two 

 to eight feet high. Its leaves are obovate, or oblanceolate, and mostly 

 entire, although occasionally a few remote teeth are seen above their middle, 



WAX MYRTLE. 



Myrica hi odor a. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Bayberry. Spreading;. d-iofcct. Florida, Alaba)na and lu-bruary-May. 



Mississippi. 



Bark: whitish. Bra)uhlets : reddish brown. Leaves: oblong-obovate, bluntly 

 pointed or rounded at the apex and tapering at the base into the margined petiole; 

 entire; often recurved on the edges, thick, lustrous, smooth and sparingly covered 

 underneath with dark, coloured dots. Drupe : oblong or ovoid, about the size of 

 a pea, the outer wall only sparingly covered with wax. 



It is only very seldom that this rare plant becomes tree-like in its habit. 

 In Florida it grows in swamps near Apalachicola and Argyle ; in Alabama 

 it is found in the vicinity of Mobile ; and in Mississippi, near Poplarville. 



SWEET FERN, {r/afc XXX J VII) 

 Comptbnia pcreg7-\na. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Bayberry. Greenish. Leaves fragrant. North California to Nova AprilyMay. 



Seotia and ivestivard. 



Flowers : monoecious or dioecious, the staminate aments very short and growing 

 near the ends of the branches; the pistillate ones globose and growing on the 

 branches below those which are staminate, in fruit becoming bur-like. A'///.' light 

 brown ; ovoid ; shiny. Leaves : linear, or linear-lanceolate, with very short petioles, 

 pointed at the apex and taper-pointed or rounded at the base; deeply pinnatifid 

 into rounded or pointed entire lobes; their sinuses being very narrow and pointed; 

 glabrous, shiny. A shrub one to two and a half feet high with wide spread 

 branches. 



Over the hillsides in dry soil where this low shrub forms often a close and 

 interwoven growth, it exhales its spicy breath and holds ever its own place 

 in the plant world. It appears vigorous and thus casts abroad an air of 

 refreshment to the traveller over these places who perchance is all the 

 while picking blueberries. 



