BAYBERRY FAMILY 



Fruit. — Nuts in imbricated head- : each nut two-winged by 



means of two fleshy ovate scales which are attached at the base. 



Although a denizen of cold northern swamps, the 



Sweet Gale is wonderfully tolerant of changed con- 

 ditions, and will grow on a dry, gravelly, exposed 



ridge. Like the Barberry, the leaves are densely cov- 

 ered with small resinous dots which are the source of 

 their fragrance. 



BAYBERRY. WAXBERRY 

 Myrica carolincnsis. Merica cerifera. 



Myrica i the ancient name of an unknown shrub. 



Stiff, crooked. ..'rowing in miniature thickets : found in everv 

 variety of situation and soil ; from dry. rocky hills to sandy 

 plains, from the border of marshes to the edge of the sea-shore; 

 varies from three to eight feet in height. Ranges near the coast 

 from Nova Scotia to Florida and Alabama; sparingly found on 

 the borders of the Great Lakes. 



Bark. — Brownish gray, dark and pale irregularly mixed ; 

 young stems golden brown, somewhat hairy and covered with 

 resinous dots. Leaf huds minute, globular, reddish brown. 



Leaves. — Alternate, or irregularly s< attered or tufted, simple. 

 two to three and one-half inches long, I .Ate or oblong, nar- 

 rowed at the base, entire, or with three or four serrate teeth near 

 the apex which bears a tiny point at the end. They come out 

 of the bud revolute, pale green tinged with red. shining, covered 

 with white woolly hairs, thickly covered with pale amber resi- 

 nous dots: appear rather late: when fill grown are leatherv, 

 shining, bright green, resinous, dotted on both sides, fragrant. 

 In autumn they darken to a bronze purple or fall with little 

 change of color.. 



Flowers. — May. Dioecious, individual flowers without calvx 

 or corolla, solitary on a scaledike bract. Staminate flowers ex- 

 pand with the leaves, borne in stiff, erect catkins less than an 

 inch long, on last year's wood : scales roundish, loose; stamens 



440 



