CLASS VIII. ORDER I. 159 



at the mouth into five auriculated emarginate segments. Fila- 

 ments roundish, purple, nearly as long as the corolla, inserted in 

 the receptacle. Anthers oblong, bifid at top. Style erect, green, 

 as long as the stamens. Germ globular. Capsule roundish, 

 with five longitudinal depressions, five celled, the dissepiments 

 formed by the inflexed margins of the valves. Seeds oblong 

 ovate. — On the barren summit of the White mountains. — July. 



176. DIRCA. 

 DiRCA Palustris. Leather Wood. 



American Medical Botany, PI. xxxvii. 

 This is an irregular shrub, somewhat distinguished by the 

 horizontal tendency of its branches and leaves. The branches 

 have an interrupted or jointed mode of growth. They are flexi- 

 ble and exceedingly strong and tough. Leaves scattered or 

 alternate, with very short petioles, oval, entire, subacute, downy 

 when young ; smooth and membranous when fully grown, and 

 pale on the under side. The flowers appear much earlier than 

 the leaves. Previously to their emerging they exist in minia- 

 ture within a small hairy bud, which occupies a sheath or cavity 

 in the end of each flowering branch. They are commonly in 

 bunches of three together with their peduncles cohering. Each 

 flower is about half an inch long, of a yellov/ color and without 

 calyx. The corolla is funnel shaped, v.'ith a contraction near 

 the base, and another in the middle, its border dilated, and 

 slightly and irregularly toothed. Stamens eight, much longer 

 than the corolla, the alternate ones longest, the filaments capil- 

 lary and inserted into the tube ; anthers roundish. Germ ovate, 

 placed obliquely, the style appearing to issue from one side. 

 Style capillary, curved, and longer than the stamens. The fruit 

 is a small, oval, acute, red, one-seeded berry. — Low woods and 

 marshes on Kennebec river, also at Keene, New Hampshire.— 

 April and May. — Perennial. 



177. VACCINIUM. 



Vaccinium resinosum. L. Black Whortleberry , or 



Huckleberry. 

 Racemes bracted ; corollas ovate; leaves elliptic, 



