HEATH FAMILY 



Stamens. — Five to ten, hypogynous, exserted, filaments thread- 

 like, white ; anthers white, cells opening by terminal pores. 



Pistil. — Ovary superior, ovoid, scaly, five -celled; ovules 

 many; style threadlike, persistent ; stigma five-lobed. 



Fruit. — Capsule, a quarter of an inch long, oblong-oval, 

 crowned with the style, downy, nodding, five-celled, five-valved, 

 opening from the base. Seeds many. 



Labrador Tea is an interesting example of a plant fitted to hold its own in 

 a subarctic climate. In the first place, it is clothed in wool ; it carries a 

 thick woolly coat over its stems and on the under-surface of its leaves. 

 This woolliness lessens the loss of water through the stomata. Then, too, 

 the leaves are partly rolled up with the upper surface outward, so as to give 

 the lower surface a deeply grooved form. This plant ranges far north into 

 regions where the temperature even in summer often falls so low that the 

 absorption of water by the roots ceases, since it has been shown that this 

 stops a little above the freezing point of water. Exposed to cold dry winds 

 the plant would then often be killed by complete drying up, if it were not for 

 the protection afforded by the woolly, channelled, under-surfaces of the leaves. 



— Joseph Y. Bergen. 



The name Labrador Tea is more than a botanist's 

 fancy, — the resinous, astringent, and slightly bitter 

 leaves really have been used at the north as a substi- 

 tute for tea. There is no record that it is a good sub- 

 stitute ; and in Russia where the leaves of an allied 

 species are used instead of hops in the manufacture of 

 beer, the beer so made causes headache and vertigo. 

 Like all subarctic plants the roots are large in propor- 

 tion to the spread of stem and foliage. The leaves are 

 curiously recurved, a concession to the severity of the 

 climate in its chosen home. The handsome clusters 

 of white flowers are produced in May and June. It 

 prefers a peat soil, and like most broad-leaved ever- 

 greens in our climate is the better for a slight winter 

 covering, not as protection against winter cold, but 

 against winter sunshine. 



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