HEATH FAMILY 



mountains southward to Georgia and Michigan. Root fibrous, 

 matted ; easily cultivated j foliage has the bad reputation of 

 poisoning cattle. 



Leaves. — Alternate or in pairs, or in threes, simple, evergreen, 

 three to four inches long, oblong, wedge-shaped at base, entire, 

 acute or rounded at apex and tipped with a callous point. They 

 come out of the bud conduplicate ; pale green slightly tinged 

 with pink and covered with glandular white hairs ; when full 

 grown are thick and rigid, dark shining green above, pale yellow 

 green beneath. They remain green and fall the second summer. 

 Petioles stout, short, slightly flattened. 



Flowers. — May, June, from buds which are found in autumn 

 in the axils of the upper leaves in the form of slender cones of 

 downy green scales. These buds develop a compound many- 

 flowered corymb, four or five inches across, and overlapped at 

 the flowering time by the leafy branches of the year. Buds and 

 new flowers bright rose pink, afterward fading to pale pink or 

 white and only lined with pink. Pedicels are red or green, 

 hairy or scurfy and furnished with two bracts at base. 



Calyx. — Five-parted ; lobes imbricate in bud, narrow, acute, 

 covered with glutinous hairs. Disk prominent, ten-lobed. 



Corolla. — Saucer-shaped, rose-colored, white or pink, about 

 one inch across. Tube short, with ten tiny sacs just below the 

 five-parted border; lobes ovate, acute, imbricate in bud. The 

 border is marked on the inner surface with a waving rosy line 

 and is slightly purple above the sac= The buds are ten-ribbed 

 from the sacs to the acute apex. 



Stamens. — Ten, hypogynous, shorter than the corolla; at first 

 held in the sacs of the corolla ; filaments threadlike ; anthers 

 oblong, adnate, two-celled ; cells opening longitudinally. 



Pistil. — Ovary superior, five - celled ; style threadlike, ex- 

 serted ; stigma capitate ; ovules many in each cell. 



Fruit. — Woody capsule, many-seeded, depressed, globular, 

 slightly five-lobed, five-celled, five-valved ; crowned with the 

 persistent calyx, covered with viscid hairs. Seeds oblong. 



The Laurels possess a remarkable adaptation for 

 cross-fertilization. As each curious, angular, pocketed 

 corolla-cup opens, the stigma appears erect in the very 



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