244 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



southern United States. It is a shrub the leaves of which remind 

 us of those of the Willows and Chestnuts; they are alternate, 

 petiolate, accompanied by lateral stipules ; oblong, pointed, penni- 

 nerved, entire, tomentose beneath. The flowers develop before 

 them, on the wood of the branches where the catkins occupy the 

 axil of the fallen leaves. The stamens are somewhat raised with 

 the contracted base of the axillant bracts.-^ 



VI. MYRICA SEEIES. 



The flowers are equally amentaceous in the Myrecce^ (fig. 217 — 

 225), and are likewise destitute of a true perianth ; most generally, 



Myrica Gale. 



Fig. 219. Female 

 catkin (f). 



Fig. 217. Young male floriferous Fig. 221. Long. sect. Fig. 220. Female 

 branch. of female flower. flower G). 



as in the indigenous species, Myrica Gale L. (fig. 217 — 223), they 

 are dioecious and borne on simple catkins. In this species, in the 



^ Here perhaps will be placed the genus 

 Didi/meles Dup.-Th. doubtfully referred by us 

 to the ZanthoxylccB {Hist, des Plant, iv. 392, 

 note 1), and which with C. De Candolle 

 {Frodr. xvii. 292), as with Meissner {Gen, 

 €omm. 256) is perhaps a Myrica. Its carpels, 



grouped in pairs face to face, are organized like 

 those of Leittieria, but its stamens are also in 

 pairs on the common axis of the catkin facing 

 each other. 



2 Myrica L. Gen. ed. I, n. 746 (part.).— J. 

 Gen. 409, 453.— G^ktn. Fruct. i. 190, t. 39.— 



