ERICACEAE HEATH FAMILY 



LABRADOR TEA 



Ledum groenldndicum. Ltdum latifblium. 

 Ledum is without significance as applied to this plant. 



A low, evergreen, undershrub one to four feet high, growing in 

 bogs and swamps and cold, damp, wooded glens. Ranges from 

 Greenland to British Columbia and southward to Massachusetts, 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Juices bitter, astrin- 

 gent and narcotic. Root or subterranean stem very large. 



Stems. Recent shoots densely covered with rusty tomentum. 

 Older branches reddish brown or copper-colored ; main stem 

 very dark. 



Leaves. Alternate, simple, thick, one to two inches long, 

 one-fourth to one-half an inch wide, oblong, pointed or rounded 

 at base, obtuse at apex, margin entire, strongly revolute ; when 

 full grown are pale green, slightly rugose, sparingly dotted 

 with amber dots above, densely covered with soft brown wool 

 beneath. Those growing on branches near the ground are 

 sometimes destitute of tomentum and are flat, short, elliptical 

 and scattered, bearing resinous dots beneath. Fragrant when 

 crushed. Petioles short. 



Flowers. May, June. Perfect, white, three-eighths to one- 

 half an inch broad ; borne in dense terminal umbels one to one 

 and one-half inches across ; pedicels nearly an inch long, recurved 

 in fruit, brown-hairy or tomentose, bracted at the base; bracts 

 deciduous. 



Calyx. Small, five-toothed, persistent. 



Corolla. Petals five, white, nearly or quite distinct, oval, ob- 

 tuse, imbricate in bud. 



343 



