BAYBERRY FAMILY 



Fruit. — Nuts in imbricated heads ; each nut iwo-winged by 

 means of two fleshy ovate scales which are attached at the base. 



Although a denizen of cold northern swamps, the 

 Sweet Gale is wonderfully tolerant of changed con- 

 ditions, and will grow on a dry, gravelly, exposed 

 ridge. Like the Bayberry, the leaves are densely cov- 

 ered with small resinous dots which are the source of 

 their fragrance. 



BAYBERRY. WAXBERRY 



Myrica caroUm^tisis. Merica cerifera. 



Myrica, the ancient name of an unknown shrub. 



Stiff, crooked, growing in miniature thickets ; found in every 

 variety of situation and soil ; from dry, rocky hills to sandy 

 plains, from the border of marshes to the edge of the sea-shore ; 

 varies from three to eight feet in height. Ranges near the coast 

 from Nova Scotia to Florida and Alabama; sparingly found on 

 the borders of the Great Lakes. 



Bark. — Brownish gray, dark and pale irregularly mixed ; 

 young stems golden brown, somewhat hairy and covered with 

 resinous dots. Leaf buds minute, globular, reddish brown. 



Leaves. — Alternate, or irregularly scattered or tufted, simple, 

 two to three and one-half inches long, obovate or oblong, nar- 

 rowed at the base, entire, or with three or four serrate teetli near 

 the apex which bears a tiny point at the end. They come out 

 of the bud revolute, ])ale green tinged with red, shining, covered 

 with white woolly hairs, thickly covered with pale amber resi- 

 nous dots ; appear rather late ; when full grown are leathery, 

 shining, bright green, resinous, dotted on both sides, fragrant. 

 In autumn they darken to a bronze purple or fall with little 

 change of color. 



Floivers. — May. Dicecious, individual flowers without calyx 

 or corolla, solitary on a scale-like bract. Staminate flowers ex- 

 pand with the leaves, borne in stiff, erect catkins less than an 

 inch long, on last year's wood ; scales roundish, loose ; stamens 



440 



