HEATH FAMILY. Ericaceae. 



woodland streams are bordered with these wonderful 

 blossoms, leaning over the water and filling the air with 

 their delicious fragrance. 



There are many kinds of Rhododendron, most abundant 

 in Asia, resembling Azalea, but with evergreen, leathery 

 leaves. The name is from the Greek, meaning " rose-tree." 



A magnificent shrub, the handsomest 

 California Rose in the West> frQm three to fifteen feet 



Rhododendron hi h with a S ra y isri trunk and fine, 



evergreen foliage. The leaves are from 

 pink three to ten inches long, rich-green and 



leather y smo th but not shiny, paler on 

 the under side, spreading out around the 

 large flower-clusters, so as to set them off to great advan- 

 tage, and the flowers are over two inches across, scentless, 

 with small, pale sepals and pink corollas, almost white 

 at the base and shading to deep pink at the edges, which 

 are prettily ruffled. The upper petal is freckled with 

 golden-brown, or greenish spots and arrow-shaped 

 markings, the pistil is crimson and the stamens, with pale 

 pink filaments and pale yellow anthers, curve in, like little 

 serpents' heads. The coloring of the flower clusters, mixed 

 with the crimson-tipped buds, is a combination of delicate 

 and brilliant tints and in such places as the redwood 

 forests, along the Noyo River in California, where the 

 shrub develops into a small tree, the huge clusters, glowing 

 high above us among the dark forest trees, are a wonderful 

 sight. This is the "State flower" of Washington. 



There are a good many kinds of Arctostaphylos, mostly 

 western; evergreen shrubs, with very crooked branches: 

 smooth, dark red or brown bark; alternate leaves, and 

 usually nodding, white or pink flowers, with bracted 

 pedicels, in terminal clusters, the parts usually in fives: 

 the corolla urn-shaped; the stamens usually ten, not pro- 

 truding, the filaments hairy; the ovary raised on a disk on 

 the receptacle; the fruit berry-like, several nutlets sur- 

 rounded by soft pulp. The leaves, by a twisting of theii 

 stalks, assume a vertical position on the branches, a hab 

 which enables many plants of dry regions to avoid u 

 necessary evaporation. These shrubs are often ve 

 abundant and with Chaparral Pea, Buck Brush, Scru 



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