HEATH FAMILY. Ericaceae. 



under side. The flowers are a good deal less than half an 

 inch across, with five, very small sepals; five, spreading, 

 white petals; a green ovary, and from five to seven, long, 

 conspicuous stamens, giving a feathery appearance to the 

 pretty flower-clusters, which before blooming are en- 

 closed in large, scaly buds. Both foliage and flowers are 

 aromatic. This is found across the continent, as far south 

 as Pennsylvania, and in Greenland. L. glandulbsum is 

 similar, but not woolly. These plants grow in swamps and 

 damp places and are considered poisonous. 



There are only a few kinds of Phyllodoce, of arctic and 

 alpine regions; low shrubs, with small, leathery, evergreen 

 leaves; flowers nodding, with bracts, in terminal clusters; 

 calyx usually with five divisions; corolla more or less bell- 

 shaped, usually five-lobed; stamens usually ten; stigma 

 with a round top, or four to six lobes; capsule roundish: 

 often called Heather, but we have no native Heather. 



A charming little shrub, from six to ten 

 Red Heather , ,, . , ., ., .. , 



Phyllodoce Breweri mches tall > Wlth g a ^ flowerS and dari 

 (Bryanthus) yellowish-green leaves, standing out 



Piak stiffly from the stem, like the bristles of a 



Summer bottle-brush. The flowers are sweet- 



scented, nearly half an inch across, wit! 

 reddish calyxes and pedicels and bright pink, saucer- 

 shaped corollas, with from seven to ten, long, purple 

 stamens, a purple pistil and crimson buds. This makes 

 heathery patches on high mountain slopes, up to twelve 

 thousand feet in the Sierra Nevadas. 



Much like the last, but the nodding 

 Red Heather flowers are smaller and not quite sc 

 Phyllodoce em- pret ty, with bell-shaped corollas and the 

 tBryow/Aus) stamens not protruding. It forms beauti- 



Pink ful patches of bright purplish-pink coloi 



Summer on mountainsides, up to eleven thousand 



Northwest feet> f art h e r north than the last. 



This makes heather-like patches OB 



Yellow Heather roc k s and has many rough, woody stems, 



gtondrtiflfra crowded with yellowish-green leaves, 



(Bryanthus) shorter and broader than those of Red 



Yellowish Heather. The drooping flowers are about 



Summer three-eighths of an inch long, with a hairy, 



greenish-yellow calyx and yellowish corolla, 



352 



