p 



MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 355 



at the joints. The leaves are oval, green above and covered 

 with a whitish bloom beneath. The small pink and white 

 flowers are formed like tiny toothed bells, and grow singly at 

 the ends of the slender recurved stalks, which causes them to 

 droop downwards. The berries also are pendent. 



V. memdranaceimi, or Black Vaccinium, is not so tall as the 

 preceding species, seldom attaining a height of six feet. The 

 leaves are larger than those of the Blueberry, and are green 

 on both sides and finely edged with very tiny teeth. The 

 flowers are globular, and from their rounded corollas the long 

 style protrudes. The recurved axillary stalks, which bear the 

 blossoms, become upright in fruit and thus hold erect the 

 large, sweet, purple-black berries, which have no bloom. 



WOOLLY LABRADOR TEA 



Ledum latifolium. Heath Family 



Stems : erect or ascending, the bractlets rusty-tomentose. Leaves : 

 oblong, obtuse, green and slightly rugose above, densely tomentose 

 beneath, the wool soon ferruginous, and the margins strongly revolute. 

 Flowers : umbellate or corymbose, numerous, terminal ; petals five, 

 spreading ; pedicels brown-canescent, recurved in fruit. 



This lovely flowering shrub thrives chiefly on low-lying flats 

 and in wet marshy places, where its large terminal clusters of 

 snow-white blossoms grow abundantly from sticky scaly buds 

 on the low bushes. The foliage of the Woolly Labrador Tea is 

 strictly characteristic, for the leaves are long-shaped, with revo- 

 lute margins, green and slightly wrinkled on the top and 

 densely woolly underneath, the wool in the developed foliage 

 being the colour of iron rust. This thick woolly growth is 

 probably designed for the express purpose of protecting the 

 pores of the leaves from becoming clogged by the moist 

 vapours that must necessarily rise round about them, owing 

 to the extremely wet ground in which the shrubs flourish. 



