HEATH FAMILY 



Leaves. Alternate, simple, one to three and a half inches long, 

 oblong to ovate, acute or rounded at base, serrulate, acute at apex, 

 usually with a glandular point ; when full grown are glabrous, 

 bright shining green above, paler, slightly pubescent on the 

 veins beneath. In autumn they become a brilliant scarlet or 

 vary through purple and scarlet and orange ; and remain until 

 beaten off by storms. Petioles very short. 



Flowers. May, June, with or before the leaves. Perfect, white, 

 bell-shaped, borne in one-sided racemes three to four inches 

 long, which are mostly terminal, solitary or clustered ; pedicels 

 short, bracted, jointed with the rachis. Fragrant. 



Calyx. Sepals five, distinct, acute, persistent, imbricate in 

 bud, bracted. 



Corolla. White, oblong-cylindrical, contracted at the mouth, 

 about three-eighths of an inch long, five-toothed. 



Stamens. Ten, included ; filaments white, awl-shaped ; an- 

 thers oblong, two-avvned ; cells opening by terminal pores. 



Pistil. Ovary superior, five-celled, five-valved; style slender, 

 exserted, stigma capitate. 



Fruit. Capsule, depressed-globose, surrounded by the per- 

 sistent calyx and bracts. August, September. 



Garden and Forest says: " The value of the northern 

 native plant Leucothoe racemosa for the decoration of 

 the parks and gardens of the northern states is very 

 great. It is a hardy, fast - growing shrub which 

 sometimes attains the height of ten feet ; its slender 

 branches are covered with dark green leaves which late 

 in the autumn, long after those of every other tree 

 and shrub cultivated in gardens have fallen, assume a 

 brilliant and beautiful scarlet color. Its handsome, 

 waxy, white, cup-shaped flowers are produced in long, 

 erect, or slightly curved terminal racemes from buds 

 formed the previous autumn, and covered during the 

 winter with closely imbricated bracts. The splendid 

 color of the leaves of this shrub in the late autumn 



376 



