ERICACEAE. (HEATH FAMILY.) 293 



5. EPIGJEA, L. Ground Laurel. Trailing Arbi i i s. 



Corolla salver-form; the tube hairy inside, as long as the ovate-lanceolate 

 pointed and scale-like nearly distinct sepals. Stamens 10, with slender filaments : 

 anthers oblong, awnless, opening lengthwise. Style slender, its apex (as in 

 Pyrola) forming a sort of ring or collar around and partly adnate to the 5 little 

 lobes of the stigma. Pod depressed-globular, 5-lobed, 5-celled, many-seeded. — 

 A prostrate or trailing scarcely shrubby plant, bristly with rusty hairs, with ever- 

 green and reticulated rounded and heart-shaped alternate leaves, on slender peti- 

 oles, and with rose-colored flowers in small axillary clusters, from scaly bracts. 

 (Name composed of ejrt, upon, and yrj, the earth, from the trailing growth.) 



1. E. ripens, L. — Sandy woods, or sometimes in rocky soil, especially 

 in the shade of pines: common in many places, especially eastward. — Flowers 

 appearing in early spring, exhaling a rich spicy fragrance. In New England 

 called Mayflower. 



6. GATJLTHERI A, Kalm. Aromatic Wintergreen. 



Corolla cylindrical-ovoid or a little urn-shaped, 5-toothed. Stamens 10, in- 

 cluded : anther-cells each 2-awned at the summit, opening by a terminal pore. 

 Pod depressed, 5-lobed, 5-celled, 5-valved, many-seeded, enclosed when ripe by 

 the calyx, which thickens and turns fleshy, so as to appear as a globular red 

 berry ! — Shrubs, or almost herbaceous plants, with alternate evergreen leaves 

 and axillary (nearly white) flowers: pedicels with 2 bractlets. (Dedicated by 

 Kalm to "Dr. Gaulthier," of Quebec; Linn. Amcen. Acad. 3, p. 15. The true 

 orthography, fN ascertained by Prof. Brunet from the old records in Quebec, 

 is Gaultier ; so that the orthograpjry of the genus, if changed at all, should be 

 Gaultiera.) 



1. G. procumbens, L. (Creeping Wintergreen.) Stems slender 

 and extensively creeping on or below the surface ; the flowering branches ascend- 

 ing, leafy at the summit (3' - 5' high) ; leaves obovate or oval, obscurely serrate ; 

 flowers few, mostly single in the axils, nodding. — Cool damp woods, mostly in 

 the shade of evergreens especially northward, and southward along the Allegha- 

 nics. July. — The bright red berries (formed of the calyx) and the foliage have 

 the well-known spicy-aromatic flavor of the Sweet Birch. In the interior of the 

 country it is called Wintergreen, or sometimes Tea-berry. Eastward it is called 

 Checkerberry or Partridge-berry (names also applied to Mitchella, the latter espe- 

 cially so), also Boxberry. 



7. LEUCOTHOE, Don. Leucothoe. 



Calyx of 5 nearly distinct sepals, imbricated in the bud, not enlarged nor 

 fleshy in fruit. Corolla ovate or cylindraceous, 5-toothed. Stamens 10 : an- 

 thers naked, or the cells with 1. or 2 erect awns at the apex, opening by a pore. 

 Pod depressed, more or less 5-lobed, 5-celled, 5-valved, the sutures not thick- 

 ened ; valves entire : the many-seeded placenta? borne on the summit of the short 

 columella, mostly pendulous. — Shrubs with petioled and serrulate leaves, and 

 white scaly-bracted flowers crowded in axillary or terminal spiked racemes. (A 

 mythological name.) 



